Water Children
by Tuulikki
Summary: Once, in the Heian times, there lived a strange child, one who never quite belonged to the world of men. There were two things to hold him back - his mother, and go. Even they could not give him a long, happy life...but a thousand years later he would change the life of another boy. Fairytalesque AU. (First chapter was meant as oneshot, for Blind Go, but the story just lives on...)
1. Chapter 1: Sai

...have we already established that I can't write summaries? Well, that said, this first chapter was my fic for Blind Go Round 14. If you've read this there, new stuff begins in the second chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Sai**

One spring evening, around the time when the last cherry petals were floating down in the wind and the wisteria were just beginning to bloom, the capital was abuzz with whispering. Rumors spread across the city like fire in dry hay.

"Have you heard of the Minor Counselor's wife?"

"The baby… have you heard of the baby…?"

"It's horrifying! How could she face such misfortune?"

"I hear it's malformed, like a frog…"

"No, no, its skin, its skin is like that of a fish, slippery and scaly…"

"Frightening!"

"How did it happen? Is it a curse, or…"

"I heard…"

"Yes?"

"I heard she went for a _swim_."

"_What?_ "

"When she went on a pilgrimage last summer. The day was hot, they passed a lake, and _she went to swim_."

"That… that is…!"

"I know. Such behavior! What else could follow but misfortune?"

.

As the women gossiped, the Minor Counselor's wife was smiling down at the tiny bundle in her arms. The servants were frightened, silly things, so she had to take care of her child on her own. She didn't mind though, for it was such a beautiful child: clear, pale skin, amethyst eyes, soft dark hair already thick as a finger. The only problem was the thin web-like skin growing between the infant's fingers and toes, like in the foot of a frog… but with such a beautiful child, it was a minor grievance. Surely it would come off as the child grew.

The baby's father wasn't quite as happy when he came to see his new son. The Minor Counselor stared at the sleeping baby and its tiny, tightly closed fists. Even so the web between the fingers was obvious. He turned his glare to the new mother, who lowered her eyes.

"It is unfortunate, of course," she murmured to his unspoken accusation. "But don't you see how beautiful and healthy the boy otherwise is? I think people are making too much out of a little thing…"

"Little thing!" the counselor exclaimed. "The city is full of rumors! Do you have any idea what this does to your reputation – not to mention mine?"

"People make too much out of this," she repeated quietly, still watching her hands. "With time, they will forget. And it _is_ a little thing – as the boy grows, surely those things will come off. With time."

The Minor Counselor leaned back, watching her with an unreadable expression. He posed an extravagant sight that day in his fine robes, as if he had wanted to make sure that at least his appearance wouldn't give any cause for criticism. "How can you know that?" he finally asked. "And even if that is true, this is a bad time for you to cause a scandal attached to my name. How could you be so foolish!"

She stiffened a little. "I have done nothing wrong," she said, annoyed at the defensive tone in her voice. "I was merely walking by the lake when I slipped and fell into the water. You know that! Don't you remember? It perfectly ruined my clothes!"

She shuddered with the memory. The shock of the cold water hitting her and that frightful moment when she had been completely submerged, her clothes heavy in the water, uncertain which was up and which down, until a hand grasped her hair (of all things!) and pulled her to the surface. "I can't even swim," she concluded a little weakly. She looked up at her husband, and for the first time felt anger toward him. "How can you be so cold! This is your child, after all; can't you show at least a little bit of happiness for a new son?"

He looked again at the baby and frowned. "Is it so strange if a man isn't overly pleased when he has eagerly waited for the first song of a thrush, only to hear a frog croaking in the night?"

"Man has to be deaf indeed to mistake a thrush for a frog," she replied coldly. "I am sorry you are so disappointed, my lord. But what has happened can't be made undone. This child is now here, and he is yours, and mine. The days to come will yet prove to you that I am right: he is a fine son for you to have."

"Perhaps." With that the Minor Counselor stood up and without a word of goodbye stepped outside of her curtain, leaving her and the baby alone. She watched a moment after him, sighed, but turned then to her child. Yes, the days to come would prove her right.

The first two years of the child's life passed quite uneventfully. On the day when the Minor Counselor had left, not hiding his displeasure, the servants had been fretting, sure that he would not return and their mistress would face an unhappy fate, abandoned by her husband. To their great surprise he had not cut their ties completely and had even come to see the baby a few times.

The baby had grown up fine, just like any other child. The servants were still wondering about him (carefully when their mistress didn't hear them), about his hands and feet, his strangely colored eyes, his hair that had been abundant already when he was a baby. When the spring came two years after his birth, the hair fell down over the boy's shoulder blades, and they would have cut it, but the mother was against it – she said she wanted to see how long it would grow. So the servants kept on wondering, but with time they calmed down, gradually getting quite fond of the little, always smiling Kagemaru, as the boy was now called. His mother didn't like the name and its implication of something ghostly, but it was what his father had called him, and she decided it might be best not to make an issue out of it.

When the boy was living his third summer something happened that gave her quite a fright. Having found his feet, Kagemaru had turned into quite a lively and quick little boy. One day the girl taking care of him had turned her back only for a moment, or so she said, and suddenly he was gone. They searched everywhere, and finally it was his mother who spotted him in the garden, already wading into the water of the artificial lake, splashing happily as he went. She rushed quickly to him and snatched him away just when he was about to fall into the water, getting a loud wail of protest for her reward.

The girl got quite a scolding, and, teary-eyed, promised to be more careful in the future. After this it took everyone's full attention to keep the boy out of the lake – the moment they looked away, he was heading outside, toddling his way toward the water.

After they had fished him out of the lake for the third time, she wrote a desperate letter to the boy's father.

"I don't know what to do," she wailed. "It is as if there were something in the lake to lure him away – I barely dare to sleep in the night, fearing he slips away in the dark and in the morning we find him drowned. What should I do?"

Instead of a reply, the Minor Counselor sent an onmyouji to examine the boy. The mother waited nervously for the verdict. Finally the onmyouji came to see her, sitting down on the other side of her curtain.

"To tell the truth," the onmyouji started, getting straight to the matter, "I must admit I have never seen a case quite like this before. It is as if your son consisted wholly of pure yin – yang in him is nearly nonexistent. Water is his element, strong in him. You should keep him away from water – I don't know what might happen if he ever would follow its call, and I don't dare to guess."

"So what should we _do_?" she asked, desperately. The onmyouji shook his head at a loss.

"Fire is the opposite of water," he said, "but we can hardly burn him. I will give him a fire pendant – maybe it will help to quell the water in him."

That was all he could say. Little Kagemaru didn't like his new pendant, but it was hung round his neck on a strong string, and he couldn't get rid of it, try as he might. His mother wandered outside and watched sadly the little lake that had always been her favorite part of the garden. Then she called for her servants and told them they would be getting rid of the lake. This aroused some startled protests, but she was adamant. The work took a long time, but in the end where there had once been a shimmering lake and a softly murmuring little brook was now a rather tasteful and extremely dry rock garden.

After this little episode years passed again quietly. Kagemaru left seldom his mother's house. A few times his mother took him to watch processions or competitions, always keeping him in her own carriage away from the gazes of others, carefully avoiding the canals that ran through the city on the way. She couldn't help feeling bad, though, for although he never complained she saw the boy was growing bored always staying within her walls. She would have wanted to send him to his father's at times, just for variation, but she worried how he would fare there, among people who didn't know him. She went on pilgrimages to various nearby temples – never wanting to stay away long – to pray for her son, and once she even took the boy with her. That trip, Kagemaru later declared, was the best thing ever to happen to him, and he asked his mother if he couldn't go with her more often. She was quiet, troubled – not that she wouldn't have wanted to take him with her, but there were few places where they could go that didn't have any waters to cross on the way.

She had been so sure that time would make her son normal, but as days rolled by his strange hands and feet did not change. At least she had been right at one point: he was a fine son to have. He studied diligently, learning to read and write in a beautiful hand, and the poems he composed, though still childish, showed quite much promise. He was a sensitive boy too, at times showing deep awareness of the evanescence of the material world that belied his few years. Especially in winter, when the nights were clear and starry, the boy was often found sitting outside, watching the dark sky in complete silence. "The universe, mother," he would say when she'd go to him. "Can you feel it?" And as she sat next to him under that great starry firmament, she thought she could.

What a great man her son could some day be, if only his hands weren't so strange! The worry grew in her, gnawing her insides, until one day she again wrote to her husband. First she explained in detail the achievements of their little son, now eight years of age, and attached a poem he had recited during one of those starry nights. Then she humbly admitted she had been wrong – the webbing between his fingers wasn't disappearing. They should do something.

An onmyouji arrived again, the same as before, this time accompanied by the boy's father, who by now had risen in his career despite his strange son and had turned from a Minor Counselor to a Middle Counselor. The onmyouji examined Kagemaru's hands and toes. The skin growing between the boy's fingers truly showed no signs of ever going to disappear, white and thin though it was – so thin that light shone through it when he raised his hand toward the sun.

The simplest way, the onmyouji declared, would be just to cut the skin away. The boy flinched, but in the presence of his father refused to show any signs of weakness, and so he followed the onmyouji in silence. His mother waited behind her curtain and couldn't help shedding tears as she heard her son crying in the next room. When the boy came to her, face pale and tear-stroked, all fingers separately bandaged, she opened her arms to him and let him cry against her shoulder.

Two days passed. On the third night the servants came to wake her up. The boy had developed a high fever. He was delirious, talking of strange things no one understood. Frightened, his mother called again for the onmyouji and sent a message also to his father. Now, the onmyouji was the only one to arrive, though the Middle Counselor sent a reply asking them to keep him informed.

Nothing the onmyouji could do seemed to help. A medium was called so that they could exorcise the evil spirit causing the fever, but nothing happened. If anything the fever grew higher. The boy writhed in his bed, moaning softly, great pearls of sweat glistening on his forehead.

"Can't you do anything!" his mother exclaimed behind the screen where she was following the procedure – she wanted nothing more than to tear down that stupid screen and take her son into her arms, but there were strange men present so she had to restrain herself.

The onmyouji gave the boy a troubled look, clearly at his wits end. "I must consult my colleagues," he finally stated. "I will return tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow!" She was wringing her hands. "But what of now? He is in pain _now_! What can we do to ease it?"

"I'm afraid I can't…" the onmyouji started.

"Get off those bandages!" she cut him off, not listening. "That must be what caused this! Let me see his hands!"

"Surely," the onmyouji had time to say before she plunged forward and, coming out of her screen, started to tear away the bandages. Embarrassed, the onmyouji started to turn away, but the sight of the boy's hands caught his eyes and he froze. The fingers were red and swollen, clearly infected. But what was more peculiar was the skin that had started to grow at their edges.

Kagemaru's mother sat a moment in silence staring at the hands. Then she tore off the rest of the bandages. "Can you… can you do something about this?" she said weakly, giving a self-conscious glance at the onmyouji, as if only now realizing what she had done. Her servants had already raised the screen again and she returned behind it, hiding her face behind her fan.

The onmyouji applied ointments on the boy's hands. After two days the swelling was down and the boy was as healthy as before. And the skin between his fingers was unbroken, as if it had never been cut off.

So, the mother concluded sadly, she would simply have to be content with their fate. No matter how perfect her son would be, would people ever see beyond his hands? Would he have to spend all his years hiding from people's eyes?

"It breaks my heart," she complained to the boy's father who had come to see them a few days after the boy had got better. "Would that at least you were to realize what a fine son you have!"

"Perhaps," the Middle Counselor stated, "I _should_ learn to know him better. You say he is completely recovered? Then I shall take him to my mansion as I go. He can spend a few days there – I am not too busy at the moment, so I should be able to spend some time with him."

She worried, what else could she do, but even so she nodded her head. What else _could_ she do.

And so Kagemaru left his mother's house together with his father. She gave them her final warnings and directions – ones she had voiced many a time before and which were beginning to make both father and son equally weary. "Stay away from water. Don't leave him alone in the garden. If he disappears, check first all the places where there is water. Don't…"

"I'm not two years old anymore, mother," the boy finally cut her off, growing impatient. "I'm not going to drown into a small garden lake."

She fell silent. "Well. I hope you enjoy your stay with your father," she finally said, and the two were off.

The Middle Counselor's mansion was much grander and bigger than his wife's, but even so, Kagemaru found himself a little disappointed. Everything was in a bigger scale, yes, but otherwise the place was very similar to his mother's. There was one crucial difference, though: in the garden there was a real lake. Kagemaru found himself surprised at how strong a pull that place had to him. Here he found the pendant with the fire emblem, still hanging on his neck, useful – clutching it helped him to resist the call of the water. Even so, very often he found his steps leading to that place, and he would sit long by the lake's shore, very much wanting to take a dip but not daring to put even a finger in the water, remembering his mother's worries and fears. The servants at the mansion gave him and his hands long, wondering looks, and he could at times hear them whispering behind his back, but everyone treated him politely, if not overly friendly. He was their master's son, after all.

His father had taken him there to get to know him, to spend time with him, but in truth he saw his father but a little. He decided not to let this chance to learn new things to be wasted, though, and with his father's permission he spent a long time in the library, reading this and that, what happened to catch his interest. And so one morning he happened to grasp a book that dealt on a subject he didn't know. Starting to read it he realized it was about a game – a game that at the same time appeared to be extremely simple but still so complicated he wondered if he ever could learn it.

He spent the rest of the morning reading that book. When his father came to look for him, he found the boy sitting on the floor, completely absorbed in the book.

"What are you reading?" the Middle Counselor asked, and it took a moment for his voice to register in Kagemaru's brain.

The boy looked up, and seeing his father stood up quickly, and bowed. "This book," he said, showing it to his father. "Honored father, what… what is this game called? I can't read this sign…"

The Middle Counselor looked surprised. "It's go. How can you not know go?" Then he answered his own question, "Of course, your mother has never been fond of that game. I still wouldn't have thought she would neglect teaching it to you. Would you like to learn?"

"Yes father, please!" the boy exclaimed, face alight.

This was the most important thing Kagemaru took with himself as he returned to his mother's house: love for go. His mother wasn't quite thrilled, for she had never had any skill for the game whatsoever, but still she couldn't help feeling happy as she saw how eager her son was about it. It even seemed that go might get a stronger hold of his heart than water, and she hoped this would be the case. She might not like go, but at least it wasn't something that would place her son in danger.

She said this aloud one day, and Kagemaru smiled at her. "Go is like water, mother. It… it _flows_. It is full of endless possibilities. It's flexible, without a given form, like water, and, like water, it's constantly the same and still constantly changing." He would have gone on, but seeing in his mother's eyes that she was growing troubled again he fell silent. "I do like it better than water, I think," he said then, smiling at her, hoping this would calm her down. It did, a little.

Despite her dislike for the game his mother took out her old go board and started playing with him. It didn't take long before she needed handicap stones against her son. The Middle Counselor, when he visited them and played a game against Kagemaru, was astonished at his growth. "Had you truly not played at all before I started teaching you?" He had new kind of wonder in his eyes as he watched his son, and for the first time in years Kagemaru's mother felt tiniest sense of hope.

As time passed she soon realized what a wonderful gift her boy had found in go, and regretted not having introduced it to him earlier. Where the boy had spent hours watching the clouds in the sky, clearly wishing he too could come and go as freely as they, he now was absorbed in the game, always reading, playing and replaying when he had a chance. Kagemaru too was grateful of finding go, though for different reasons – he had never spoken of it to his mother, but on so many nights he had lain awake in his bed, listening to the water he could _feel_ flowing in the very ground below him, a hand clutched around the pendant that always hang on his neck. Now, at such times, he would think of a go problem, or of a game he had played the previous day, and soon he would be carried away by a different current, the call of water fading into the background.

With his new addiction to spend time with years flew by so fast Kagemaru hardly noticed it. At the beginning of his thirteenth year his father declared it was time to start preparing for his coming-of-age ceremony. This put the entire household into excited turmoil. Kagemaru's mother was at times smiling, at times weeping, petting his cheek as he walked by. "My little boy," she would whisper. "So soon a grown man."

On the day of the ceremony Kagemaru found himself more nervous he had ever been. It would be a simple enough ceremony, with not much for him to do, and there really wasn't any reason for him to be so nervous, but as the servants were making him ready he felt a bunch of butterflies flying around in his stomach, and he could just hope he'd manage to pull it through.

There was one part in the preparations he did not like at all, though: the cutting of his hair. It had grown long indeed, so long he had to be careful with it when he sat down. Now, it would be cut to shoulder-length, and it would be tied upon his head in a topknot. The sound of scissors clicking made him want to flinch, but he stood still, just breathing out an inaudible little sigh.

As it was, the ceremony proceeded without any trouble. His father was there, naturally, and looked at him with something akin to pride in his eyes, and it made his heart swell. His mother, equally naturally, was sitting behind her curtain and so he couldn't see her face, but he was sure she too was watching him proudly, and that thought almost brought tears to his eyes. He fought to keep them back, and managed, somehow. Some people might have noticed the dampness of his eyes, but that was hardly a bad thing; on the contrary, it was a sign of a properly sensitive young man. His uncle was the one to place the court hat on his head, and it was all done. As he stood there in his new attire, he was given his adult name.

_Sai_, he repeated quietly in his mind. It would take time to grow used to it.

…

Being an adult, Sai thought to himself, wasn't quite as grand as he had thought. Mainly it had brought around changes he didn't like. For one, he couldn't meet his mother as informally as before anymore; only seldom she invited him to her side of the curtain. For another, he didn't like the hairdo. The topknot was so tight it hurt his scalp. Another problem was his fast-growing hair – already a week after the ceremony servants had to cut it again.

He had hoped that once he'd be adult he would have greater freedom, but he found out this wasn't the case. He was still practically shut into his mother's house. He wished his father would take him to court, or at least to meet new people, but nothing happened. Yes, he loved his mother, but playing go just against her and occasionally a few of the servants (who, in truth, were better players than his mother) was beginning to make him weary. He wanted to find new opponents.

And so, one day as he had been idling away his hours in the garden, watching the rock garden – he did like the way the sand was raked into little waves, but he didn't like _sand_ – his eyes fell on an open gate and he walked out. He didn't have a clue where he was going, so he just walked on. He wasn't a child anymore. Surely he could go out if he wanted to.

He had a vague understanding of the plan of the city and of the location of his mother's house, and so he started walking toward the direction where he thought the Suzaku Avenue might be. On the way he had to cross a canal, and as he walked across it he could _smell_ the water, hear its call, but he clutched the pendant on his neck and walked on, not giving a glance down into the water.

He had left to the right direction, and soon he found himself at the edge of the Avenue. He stopped, stunned. He had known it was wide, but before he had seen it only partially from the carriage's window. He had had no idea how huge it truly was. All the open space almost made him frightened.

And eager. There was even more to explore than he would have imagined. So he walked and watched and listened and wondered. Very few people seemed to pay any attention to him at all; some stopped to look after him, possibly wondering why a young lord like him was walking around completely unattended. Sai didn't notice. Spring had arrived, and cherry blossoms with it, and it was a beautiful day to be walking in the city. But more than the beauty of the Capital of Peace and Tranquility, it was the ordinary, the mundane that took his attention. He had never before seen commoners in his life – except his parents' servants, but they were quite different from the simple laborers he saw hurrying on their way through the streets, and he was staring at each and every one of them wonderingly.

All things considered, if he were to try, he probably could have counted all the people he had met during his life, at least approximately. He had never realized how _different_ people could be. His curiosity and excitement increased. If people were so different _outwardly_, how different might they be _inwardly_? And if their differences were as big, or even bigger…

A quiet snapping sound cut off his thoughts. A familiar sound, and his feet turned as if on their own. There was a wall, and a small gate in it, and he walked toward it, peeking in curiously. He couldn't see anyone, but again he heard the _snap_ of a stone against wood, and he stepped in. A few more steps ahead, and he saw two men sitting in the shadow of trees, engaged in a game. He was about to start walking toward them, when he suddenly realized he probably shouldn't be entering other people's yards like that, uninvited. He was about to leave, as quietly as he had come, but then one of the men noticed him.

"Well, hello there," the man said, and Sai stopped, hesitating. "Can I help you somehow?"

"I… I'm sorry to intrude…" Sai glanced at the gate. Then his gaze returned to the go board. "I just… heard the sound of you playing, and…"

"Heard?" the man laughed. "To the streets? Keen hearing you've got, boy."

"I'm sorry," Sai muttered again and bowed. "I'll be going now…"

"Did you want to play?" the man asked. "This game is as good as finished, anyway."

"What, are you resigning?" his opponent asked, and he laughed out loud.

"You're the one who should have already done that," he pointed out.

The other frowned, looking at the board. "What? It's not over yet!"

Sai had walked closer to them, covering his hands under his long sleeves. "It _is_ a difficult situation for white," he muttered, eyeing curiously the board. The man playing white shot him a glare while the other grinned, but he went on, not noticing either of them, "but it is _not_ over yet. White can still win."

The men looked down at the board, then, as one, at him. "Think so?" the one who had black said. "Well, let us see."

They played on, and white did lose, crushingly. Sai was shaking his head as he watched the board. "If you had played here, and then here, you could have won," he said to the white player. "You could have captured all stones in this corner."

The man stared at the board with a frown, and the winner was shaking his head. "Surely not," he started, but then his opponent stood up.

"Why don't you show us how, know-it-all boy," he said in an annoyed tone.

Sai hesitated, but only for a short moment. He would have to be very careful… but thankfully his sleeves were long enough he should be able to play a game so that only his fingertips would show. He pulled his sleeves as far as possible and sat down at the man's place. "If you want me to," he said and started clearing the board. The two watched in silence as he recreated the situation where the game had been when he arrived. "It was black's turn here, wasn't it?" he asked, and without saying anything the man played the same move he'd played in the game.

The men were very silent for a long while once this version of the game was finished. Although he had started with a huge disadvantage, Sai had pulled a three moku win.

Then, "Mototsuna needs to play against this boy," one stated, and after a short while they were joined by a third man, and Sai got to play a full game of his own. More and more people showed up during that game, and as Sai again won, he had soon a new opponent facing him. He kept on winning, one game after another, but more than the constant victories, getting to play against so many different people made him overjoyed. Not all of them were good players, but there was something new for him to learn in every single game.

"Thank you for the game." He bowed his head as yet one game was over. Looking up at the sky he realized that evening was already arriving. He had been out much longer than he had planned. "I think I should be going soon. It's been…"

"Already!" his opponent exclaimed. "What, I get no chance to redeem myself?"

Sai would have loved to play against this man again – he had been one of the best players among his many opponents – but he was afraid his mother was worrying herself sick, not knowing where he was. "I'm sorry," he said, standing up. "Perhaps some other day. I really should be going home now."

"If you must, then you must," the man agreed with a sigh. "But what is your name? Where do I find you for a rematch?"

"I'm Fujiwara no Sai," Sai replied with a bow. "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier… the games took all my attention. My father is Middle Counselor Tadamasa. I'm still living with my mother on the fifth street."

"Middle Counselor…" someone in the group muttered. "But his sons are older…" the voice trailed off.

"Fifth street," someone else said. "Isn't that where…" He too left his sentence unfinished.

Sai froze for a moment, clenching his fists in the cover of his sleeves. He could feel the change in the atmosphere; the curiosity turning into wariness. Suddenly there was a tight knot of fear in the pit of his stomach. "I…" he said, voice hesitant, "I'll be going then…"

"Your hands, boy," his last opponent said. "Why aren't you showing your hands?"

"Ah… I…" Sai stuttered, not knowing what to say, reflexively hiding his hands behind his back. "I just, I mean, I should go, mother must be worried…"

Someone grasped his sleeve and pulled it up. There were frightened gasps, some made signs to expel evil spirits.

"Should have known it…" one man muttered, hiding behind his fan. "What human child has eyes of such color…"

"Or plays such go," someone added, and there were murmurs of consent. Sai found himself suddenly at the center of a widening circle, as people slowly backed away from him.

"I," he started, but still didn't know what to say. "I _am_ human," he finally whispered, desperately, but the frightened gazes fixed on him didn't believe it.

"That I've had a changeling in my yard, playing on my go board," the owner of the place exclaimed. "Truly frightful!" He too was viewing Sai from behind his fan, as if it would protect him against otherworldly influences. "If you were going, then do go! Go!" He made shooing gestures with his fan, a little panicky look in his eyes. "Get out already!"

Sai opened his mouth again but got out only a choked gasp; then he turned and ran.

He ran fast, tears in his eyes, without any idea where he was going to. People stared after him as he went, but he didn't even see them – he just wanted away. It is hard to say what might have happened had he crossed any waters in his current state, but luckily there were many people on the streets looking for him, and he ran straight into one group.

"Young master!" one servant exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

He stopped, stared at them blinking tears away from his eyes. Then he raised his arm to cover his face with his sleeve, embarrassed. He answered nothing to the servants' questions but allowed them to lead himself back home where his frantic mother was waiting for him. She received him full of relief, which first turned into anger (How could you disappear like that!) and then to concern and worry (Are you alright? Are you sure you're alright?) Both made him feel equally bad, but even so he didn't answer her questions either, sat only quietly while she was fussing over him as if he were still just a child. Only when his father arrived he finally told them, fragmentarily, where he had been and what had happened.

"You foolish boy!" his father snapped. "Shouldn't you have understood they'd realize who you are?"

"I'm sorry, father," he said, eyes on the ground. "I… didn't think. And… they liked playing against me, so…" _So I thought they wouldn't, maybe, mind…_

"Is it just his fault?" his mother put in. "He is not a child anymore, yet you want to keep him locked in here as if he were a prisoner! You are his father – if you had introduced him to people properly this would have never happened!"

The Middle Counselor heaved out a great sigh. "You think people would accept him just like that if I were to introduce him? Your naivety is astounding. But the damage has been done… I guess we have no choice. I'll take him to court tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" his wife exclaimed. "Isn't that a little too hasty? Shouldn't we wait for people to calm down and forget…"

"No. We have obviously waited too long. It's better to cut wings from rumors right away."

And so it was decided. Sai said nothing. Just one day earlier news like this would have made him thrilled. Now, he saw the worry in his mother's eyes, and couldn't help sharing it.

Nevertheless, early next day he was dressed in court attire, and he headed to the palace with his father.

"Do not hide your hands," the Middle Counselor told him quietly on their way there. "Hide nothing. You have nothing to be shamed of."

Sai nodded. _I'm not ashamed_, he thought to himself. _Just scared_.

They reached the palace and climbed out of their palanquin. As they walked through the yards they got long looks from people. The Middle Counselor behaved as if he noticed nothing, and Sai mimicked him as he best could. His father spotted people he knew and walked to them.

They exchanged a few pleasantries, during which the men's eyes kept on wandering to Sai and his hands. "This is my youngest son, Sai," the Middle Counselor finally said, and Sai bowed. "He just recently had his coming-of-age ceremony, and I thought it's about time I present him at court." He spoke lightly as if there was nothing peculiar about the matter at all. His friends kept on glancing from him to the boy, clearly uncertain of how to react.

"A splendid young man," one of them finally muttered. "I believe we have heard much about him." Once again his gaze dropped to Sai's hands. "Is he… I mean, is there…" he paused, looking confused, unable to figure out how to put his question into words without offending the Middle Counselor.

"You have heard many rumors, you mean?" the counselor said still in a light tone. "I am sure of that. And I admit, it is quite clear that my boy is somewhat extraordinary. But what of it? He still shows much promise, and I am sure he can yet be of great service to the throne."

"Certainly," his friend murmured, glancing at the others as if wishing for support. "He is apparently a skilled go-player, for his age… or so I hear."

"It is one of his strengths," the Middle Counselor said modestly. He seemed to be about to say more, but then a new voice joined the conversation.

"Go? How splendid! It is always wonderful to see new enthusiastic go players enter the court."

The Middle Counselor turned to face the newcomer, a light shadow passing across his face. "Then I'm happy to tell you my son loves the game quite deeply." He turned back to Sai. "Now, here is a face and name you should remember. This is Sugawara no Akitada, the emperor's go tutor."

Sai's eyes widened a little and he bowed, deeper than before. "Honored to meet you."

"So, you enjoy go?" the tutor asked, and Sai nodded eagerly.

"Greatly! I am constantly amazed at the depth of the game. I wish I could spend all my days playing…"

The man laughed. "You did not exaggerate," he said to the counselor, watching the boy thoughtfully. "You know, I have heard of the games you played yesterday, and I must admit I am curious. Would you play a game with me?"

Sai's whole face brightened.

"Perhaps later," his father put in apologetically before he could say anything. "Today I was wishing to present him to the emperor, so…"

"Father!" Sai exclaimed. "Please! Just one quick game!"

The emperor's go tutor was nodding. "You are a little early," he pointed out. "I am sure we'd have time for one game before the emperor receives anyone."

The Middle Counselor didn't look happy about it, but in the end consented.

"You say you won all your games yesterday?" he whispered to his son as they were waiting for a go board. "Don't win this one. It would be too strange if someone your age would win against the imperial go tutor."

Sai nodded slowly. Losing purposefully was a concept that had never crossed his mind, but he figured his father had a reason for the warning. He just hoped this man would be so good he would lose anyway.

From the very beginning he could feel that this game would be different from the others he had played. The man on the other side of the board had a strange air about him. His appearance was friendly, but even so Sai felt a coldness in him, and as he glanced hesitantly at his father who wore a very guarded expression on his face, he figured there was something going on that he didn't quite understand. Obviously these two weren't friends, and that saddened him – to be the emperor's go tutor this man had to be a great player, and so he would have wanted to be on friendly terms with him.

But the flow in the stones this day was anything but friendly. Sai hesitated, thinking of his father's words. He would have wanted to play his best, show what he could and so win the man over, but he didn't dare to disobey his father. He played his stone, and his opponent smiled a little, clearly knowing that this was not the best move. Sai switched, annoyed. I know it's not! he wanted to shout, but remained quiet, eyes on the board.

"It _is_ very peculiar," the man suddenly said as they had been playing for a while. Sai looked up and realized he was watching his hands. "I have never seen anything like this. One can't but wonder…" He played his move, and again Sai's reply wasn't quite the best. A thin smile tugged his lips again. "Certainly a good game for one so young," he stated, "but hardly anything spectacular. I would have expected more. But I guess there is nothing else to see but a strange freak of nature…"

He looked away, out to the blue sky, and his thoughts seemed to wander away. Sai bit his lip. Nothing but a freak of nature? A slight tremor ran through him, and he could practically feel his scalp itching. _Look at me! Look at my go! Can't you see it? Isn't it a little too precise how I always play the second best move?_ But his opponent laid yet another stone on the board, the look on his face almost bored.

Sai shot a guilty glance at his father. I'm sorry, he mouthed, though he knew his father didn't notice. He was some ten moku behind at the moment. Against an opponent of this quality it was much… but it was not hopeless. He was sure it was not hopeless. At the very least he could show this man what his go _truly_ was like.

He played a stone. No one seemed to pay much attention to that first move, not his opponent nor their audience, but five moves later he noticed a change in them. He met his opponent's eyes across the board, and for the first time the man really looked at him. Sai suppressed the urge to smile. _See?_

After yet five more moves, his father got a coughing attack. Sai glanced at him and for a moment their eyes met. He winced a little at the look he got, but shook lightly his head. No. This was his game.

It turned into a fierce battle. Outwardly Sai remained quiet and calm, but inside he was rejoicing. Never mind the result – this was the best game he had ever played. Stone after stone they plunged deeper into the game, and every time he thought they possibly could not reach any higher level, a move from his opponent forced him to rethink everything once again.

In the end he won by two moku.

The audience was breathless. For a long moment no one said anything. Then the emperor's go tutor raised his gaze, and his eyes were dark.

"This… is not natural," he said slowly.

Sai looked at him, lips a little parted, suddenly all tense. "Did you not… enjoy the game?" he asked, very, very quietly.

His opponent stood up, sleeves swooshing. "This is not natural!" he repeated. He turned to the Middle Counselor. "I do not know _what_ your son is, but this… this… no child can play like this!"

"Well, to be exact, he is not a child anymore…" the counselor tried to say, but no one was listening to him.

"He is right," one of the audience said, eyeing Sai warily. "This kind of game is impossible! And what… what is the matter with his hair?"

Sai raised a hand to his head, realizing his scalp was still itching. His hair, which should have been pulled tightly into the topknot, felt somehow loose. As he touched it by his left ear a part of it fell free and hang down over his shoulder, much longer than it had been in the morning.

The men stared at him, then at the counselor. "What is this creature you're trying to bring to the court?"

The Middle Counselor fell silent. He watched the board and the finished game, glanced at his son, and shook his head slightly. "I do not know," he said quietly. Then he looked at Sai. "Come. We're going."

"But…"

"Come, now!" He started walking away, and Sai had no choice but to follow.

They spent the way home in silence. As soon as she heard they were already back Sai's mother hurried to them.

"I do not know what this so-called son is that you bore for me," Sai's father exclaimed the moment he saw her. "But certainly none of mine!" He grasped angrily Sai's hat and pulled it off, and his wife let out a tiny gasp at the sight of the hair that cascaded freely over Sai's back.

"You can keep him," the Middle Counselor concluded darkly, turned on his heels, and left.

A long moment mother and son stared at each other. "I am sorry, mother," Sai whispered then. "I'm afraid I messed up everything."

She closed her eyes, shook her head, and pulled him into a tight hug.

After this unsuccessful visit at the palace they soon found their living at the capital quite restless. The Middle Counselor clearly had decided to have nothing to do with them anymore, and without his support they were quite on their own. The rumors were growing wilder all the time, and after someone had attempted to put their mansion on fire, Sai's mother decided it might be safer for them to leave the capital for a while. They packed their things and one early morning slipped quietly out of the city with only a few men as their entourage, heading to a temple where she had once been in retreat.

When they left the capital behind, Sai's feelings were quite mixed. He thought longingly of the house where he had grown up (though not so long ago he had dreamed of leaving it behind), wondered if he and his father ever could be reconciled. Even so, he was glad to finally get out, see the world. One capital, perhaps, was closed to them, but certainly rest of the world was much larger. His mother, though, seemed to take their voluntary exile quite heavily, and this saddened him.

They had traveled for a few days when one evening when they had just stopped for the night two men approached them. They were rather coarse and dirty, but as far as they caused no trouble Sai's mother decided it was best to be polite with them and hope they would continue their way soon. She told her servants to speak as little as possible with the men, and remained herself, keeping Sai with her, behind her covers.

In the night, a scream woke them up. Sai was the first on his feet, wide awake. He smelled something rusty in the air, and all his senses were warning him of danger. "Mother," he whispered as she sat up, clinging to her blanket, but fell then silent.

Two forms were rolling on the ground. There was flash of something bright, a gurgling sound, and that rusty smell got stronger. Sai glanced frantically around as one of the forms stood up. The other remained on the ground, unmoving. And a bit farther away he saw another lumped figure, sprawling on the ground… Of their other servants there was no sign, but soon a form appeared among the trees. For a moment Sai held his breath, hoping… but as the moon came out of the clouds he saw that the ones left standing were the two strangers.

He heard his mother let out a frightened gasp, and he swallowed. If all of their men were dead, how could _he_ protect her? The men were already walking toward them. One of them reached his hand and pulled away the cover.

"Sorry to bother your sleep, ma'am," he said with a grin, "but there seems to be some bandits on the move. Bad night to sleep outside."

The other man chuckled, but frowned then looking at Sai. "The hell is this? Dressed like a man but looks like a girl. Which _are_ you?" Sai's hair, the source behind his confusion, had just kept on growing and now it reached almost to his knees.

Sai took a deep breath, attempted to steady his voice. "We do not carry much with us," he said, taking a step so that he stood between his mother and the men. "You can take it all. Just leave my mother in peace."

"I asked what you are! Do we have to check?" The man reached his hand to grasp Sai, but at that instant his mother jumped to her feet.

"Do not touch my son!" she shrieked, pushing Sai aside.

The men laughed as she stood there, panting, facing them. "Son, is it? Are you sure? He's quite a looker. Then again, so are you."

He grasped her hair and pulled her closer. Sai plunged forward – "_Mother!_ " – but the other man grasped him, holding him back. He could but watch as his mother struggled against the man's hold, attempted to bite his arm, and the man cursed, wrenching her head back, but still she fought back, twisting, trying to break free, and he pulled, sharply, and there was a quietest _snap_, and her body went limp in his hands.

The man cursed loudly and let her fall to the ground. "Stupid bitch!"

"What, you broke her neck? Idiot!" The other man practically threw Sai from his hands – the boy had gone almost as limp as his mother. He fell to his knees and crawled to her, breath stuck in his throat, hands reaching toward her but not daring to touch.

"Mother," he whispered, eyes staring at the awkward bend of her neck. "Mother…"

"Sorry 'bout that, kid," one of the men said. They were already going through their few possessions. "Her own fault, though."

Sai looked up. His eyes fixed on the men who were examining his mother's personal things, and slowly he stood up. Anger was swelling up in him, so great he thought he might explode with it. "Mother," he whispered one more time, eyes dark and wide, nostrils flared, and a shudder went through him. His hand rose up, to the fire pendant on his neck, and with one sharp move he tore it off for the first time since he had been a toddler.

As the pendant dropped to the ground from his fingers he felt the water around him, _in him_, in the land, in the air, in his mother's body on the ground… in the two men in front of him. He _reached_ to it, called it like it used to call him, and suddenly first one of the men, then the other stumbled, gurgled, fell to the ground, water filling their lungs and mouths, making them drown on dry land.

Gasping for breath they glanced at the boy behind them, horror in their eyes. They tried to say something, shout, perhaps beg, but couldn't for the water pouring from their mouths and noses. One of them tried to ran but soon fell to the ground again, and after an endless period of thrashing and spluttering they finally lay still in the pools forming around them.

Sai stared at them long, unmoving, breathing heavily. Slowly his anger faded and his gaze moved to his mother. Tears filling his eyes he knelt beside her again, this time gathering her in his arms. A long while he stayed there, holding her in the quiet of the night. Then, without a glance at the dead bodies around him, he stood up, still holding her. Slowly he started to walk away.

His mother wasn't a big woman, but still she made a heavy burden for a boy like him. He didn't have long to go, though; he knew that. The water flowing in the ground guided him, and soon he arrived to a small lake, hidden among the trees. He knelt down by its shore, gently lowering his mother to the ground.

He knew the custom would be to cremate her, but he would not give his mother to fire. He looked around, gathered a few big stones and wrapped them into her clothes. After short hesitation he took off his own clothes. Then he took her in his arms again and walked into the water. When his feet didn't anymore reach the ground he swam, finding that movement more natural than walking had ever been, still holding on to her. Once he reached the deepest part of the lake he took one final look ofher face and then let her fall. A while he still stayed floating quietly on the lake's surface, watching the trees, the pile of his clothes on the shore, the dark night sky, and then he dove into the water and let it all go.

... ... ...

A thousand years flew by, and many a traveler passed by the little hidden lake during that time. They were a various lot, rich and poor, old and young, some full of dreams, others, despair. Some stopped to cool their aching feet in the cold water, but they saw nothing special in the lake, just a nice place for a short rest.

With years the city crept closer and closer, swallowing many other forests and lakes whole, but somehow this little corner was spared. Despite the city's new proximity, the place remained as untouched and wild as ever before – somehow it seemed that the locals had all but forgotten about its existence, for it was very seldom that anyone came there. A year could pass, and the only movement by the shore would be a squirrel jumping from a branch to branch, or a fox running among the trees.

But one day two voices approached, young, one male, one female.

"What a wonderful place!" the woman was saying. "It is almost magical – as if we had stepped into another world, another _time_ when we came to this forest. Who knew there are places like this so close to the city?"

"If you like nature so much," the man said with a little laugh, "maybe we should have went somewhere else than Kyoto."

"Oh, but I've always wanted to see Kyoto! I can't believe I've never been here before!"

The man smiled a little at her happy tone. "Even so... we could have come here any time. It's our honeymoon, I would have wanted to take you somewhere more... special. Like... Paris? How about Paris?"

The woman laughed. "I would not say no to Paris, if you wanted to go there. But I like Kyoto. Besides, you know we can't afford to go so far right now. Certainly some day we can see Paris, if you wish; I'm sure it won't be going anywhere – oh, look! A lake!"

"This is a beautiful sight," the man admitted as they stopped to watch the little lake. "A bit surprising too."

"The air is so fresh here," the woman said, taking a deep breath. "Mmm! Wonderful." She kicked off her sandals and ran to the water. "It's not too cold!" she shouted to the man. "How about going to swim?"

"What?" He seemed startled. "Now? But we don't have our swimsuits or towels with us..."

"Who needs those?" She was already pulling her shirt over her head. "It's a hot day, we'll dry soon in the sun. And we're all alone here, so why not?" Her shorts flew to the same pile with the shirt, and soon she was running into the water, laughing.

"Mitsuko!" the man called on the shore, looking a little startled, but the woman didn't listen. She was already swimming with strong strokes to the middle of the lake.

"Come on, Masao!" she shouted, turning to look at him. "This is wonderful!"

He looked at her, shaking his head, and took then off his sandals and rolled his pants up. He sat on a rock, dangling his feet in the water. "I'm not swimming. But you have fun!"

Mitsuko waved at him. "Your loss!" She took still a few strokes, and dove into the wonderfully cool clear water.

She had always loved swimming, especially in nature. The water surrounded her, caressed her, carried her, and it connected her to the world in a way she couldn't explain, almost couldn't herself understand when she stood on the dry land. In water, she was a part of _everything_.

And in this little lake, that feeling was stronger than ever. She surfaced, took a deep breath, and dove again. The water got darker and colder the deeper she went, but she knew she would get warm again soon enough in the sun. She glided through water, nimble as a fish, and enjoying herself nearly as much. She turned to head to the surface again, but stopped, confused.

No light of sun came from above. The water was dark all around her. She kicked still with her feet, hesitating. This had to be up, right? She kicked again, pulled a strong stroke, panic rising in her. This _had_ to be up! But still she could see no surface, no light, and she stopped, turned, turned again and wanted to scream, pressure growing in her chest.

_Masao, help!_

She couldn't lose directions like this. She couldn't. Shouldn't the little air that was left in her lungs help her rise toward the surface? She floated, waited, told herself to remain calm and think logically, but nothing happened. She was lost in the dark.

She squeezed her lips tightly shut, forced herself to keep from breathing though her lungs were crying for air. Blood was humming in her ears and she was sure she was crying, though in the water she couldn't feel the tears. She couldn't just stay there. She had to start moving. But where, which was the right direction?

Right when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, when a desperate _so this is it?_ flashed in her mind and a new kind of darkness was beginning to take over her sight, she thought she saw a human form approaching.

_Masao?_

The form was blurred and hazy, and she wasn't sure if she really saw it or if it was just her brain playing tricks with her. But it seemed to raise its hand, and point, and as she turned to look she saw the lightest shimmer of light up there, so far away. Again she kicked with her legs, pulled, desperately, and right when she thought her lungs must burst she hit the surface, gasping for breath.

"Mitsuko!"

That was Masao, in the water by the shore. She turned and saw that he had come so far his pants had to be getting wet. She raised her hand and waved, though a little weakly.

"Don't scare me like that!" Masao shouted to her. "I didn't know you can dive for that long!"

"Me neither," she breathed. She shot a glance around. Here on the surface everything was normal – the sun shone, birds sung, a tiny breeze moved among the trees. And the lake was as cool and inviting as ever before.

She was cold. And she had swum enough for this day.

.

Next spring the young couple was at a hospital, watching with smiles their firstborn son.

"He's so beautiful," Mitsuko breathed, holding the baby in her arms. "So... perfect."

Masao smiled as well, but frowned, too. "So... what is it about those hands?"

"The doctors said it seems to be some strange case of syndactyly. It's nothing to worry about – they said this will be easy to operate once he is a little older.

My little frog boy." She kissed the baby's head and stroked the strange goldish hair that grew on his forehead.

"Have you decided the name?" They had agreed Mitsuko would get free hands with the name – at least as long as she wouldn't pick one Masao simply couldn't stand.

"Yes." Now that she saw her son, she realized the name had always been clear to her. "He's Hikaru."

* * *

**A/N:**

kage = shadow, silhouette, phantom  
maru = suffix that was used for esp. children's names


	2. Chapter 2: Hikaru

A big thank you for the reviewers! Here's the next chapter, I hope you'll like it too.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hikaru  
**

Five years later Mitsuko still watched her son with a smile, but now there was something strained in her expression. These first five years had been difficult, and she was growing dismally certain that the future wouldn't be any kinder to them.

She and Hikaru were living alone nowadays, in a little house in the countryside at the edge of a small town. Masao came to see them on the weekends, but because of his work he couldn't, _wouldn't_, live in the country, and so he had a small studio in Tokyo. And Hikaru couldn't live in a city, that much was clear to her. Some claimed she was being silly and superstitious, but they hadn't seen what she had. Nor had they lived through the constant water damages that had plagued them ever since Hikaru was small. This little house had no running water – just a well, one that was tightly covered. And no body of water anywhere close by, she had made sure of that. Too many times she had had to fish her son out of fountains and pools – she didn't want to risk lakes or rivers.

She didn't know what to think of it all. Doctors had no explanation for the web that always grew back between her son's fingers. They took tests, endless tests, but never did they find anything abnormal. She was growing tired of them, and resentful, sure that they weren't so curious about Hikaru's condition just for the boy's sake. And then there was his hair, his ever-growing hair that had to be cut once a week, and his golden bangs that people thought she was dyeing, and no one had an explanation for that, either.

It was weekend again, and this time Masao couldn't come. She wasn't sure if his reasons were real or just excuses… but anyway, it was expensive to travel back and forth every week. Perhaps every second week would be better in the future.

She was sitting by her computer, attempting to write an article for a small gardeningmagazine, a job she had taken when they had moved apart. Now, her brain was empty and she couldn't get a single word down. Perhaps, she mused staring out of the window, instead of articles she should be writing children's books about little boys with frog's hands and the strangest affinity for water…

Water. There were water drops on the window. She stood up. "Hikaru?" No reply. The boy had to be out already, he always seemed to know when it was going to rain to the minute. He was much more trustworthy than the weather forecast – which had said nothing of rain this day.

To her relief and dismay she found him in the backyard, standing there face turned upward as the rain fell on him. "Hikaru! Come in! You'll catch cold if you get wet!"

He didn't move, as if he hadn't even heard her. "Hikaru!" she shouted again, and pressed her lips into a tight line. The rain was growing harder. "Are you listening to me!" She ran to him and grasped his arm. "Come, now!"

"Mom!" Hikaru pulled back as she started to drag him in. "Wait! Just a moment, please?"

"I told you to come in! You'll catch cold!"

"No I won't! It's just water, mom, it won't hurt me!"

"Just water." She stopped. "Just water! I'm not sure if there is such thing as _just_ _water_! Now, when I tell you something, you…" She turned to her son, and meeting his strange sea-green eyes that were watching her, wide and confused, she forgot what she had been saying. A moment they just stared at each other, water drops making little brooks across their faces; then Hikaru smiled.

"Don't worry, mom! You don't have to be afraid of water, it's not evil." He shook his head and little droplets flew from his hair all around. "It's not evil," he repeated, smiling up at her, and she shuddered, suddenly remembering the time she had been lost in the dark, cold water.

"Just come in now," she whispered tiredly. "Please." She started walking, and now Hikaru followed her without a word.

After having changed dry clothes both for herself and her son Mitsuko returned to her unwritten article. Hikaru sat down by the kitchen table, and when he heard the sound of typing from his mother's workroom, he opened the window, just a little bit.

"Sai," he whispered to the rain. "Mom doesn't understand."

_It's alright,_ the rain replied. _She is a mother and she's bound to worry. Just be a good boy and don't cause her trouble, and she will yet learn to trust water once more._

Hikaru sighed, not quite understanding himself.

Sai had been there as long as he could remember. Hikaru had used to think of him as the voice in water – at first, as the voice _of_ water, but with time he had learned to separate something distinctly individual from the constant wordless murmuring somewhere in the back of his mind. And just recently it had crossed his mind to ask if this voice had a name. _Sai_, he thought, smug with his little secret. Though at times he wished that he could just tell everything to his mother, to make her stop worrying… but Sai said he shouldn't, that she wouldn't stop worrying at all if he did – on the contrary, it would make her even more afraid. Hikaru couldn't quite understand why (Sai wasn't at all scary!) but he had promised he wouldn't.

He laid his head on his arms on the table and watched out into the rain, bored. "Sai, tell me a story," he said quietly, and the rain started to whisper about an enchanted citadel with a thousand magical fountains in it, each with a power of its own, and after a while the boy fell asleep by the table.

...

Days passed, and each time Hikaru's mother tore off yet one page of the calendar, she grew more troubled. "What shall we do?" she asked her husband one day when he was again visiting them. "It's time for him to go to school… do you think we could arrange home tutoring for him?"

Masao snorted. "As if we could afford something like that. Besides, are you going to keep the boy locked up all his life? There is a fine elementary school in the town, I've looked into it. Though it'd be better if you agreed to move back to Tokyo…"

"No." Mitsuko shook her head, not looking at him. "I don't dare to bring him to a big city like Tokyo, not yet. I'm not sure about the town, either… there will be much more water around there than here. And what if the other children will tease him because of his hands?"

"You can't keep him locked up all his life," Masao repeated. "We'll enroll him in the school here. Though I must say I think you're much too paranoid where it comes to water…"

"Are you forgetting already?" Mitsuko cut him off, voice bitter. "How he always managed to find water, everywhere? Almost drowned so many times before we moved here? And all those water damages and bursting pipes, anywhere he went… lord, what if something like that happens at his school?"

"Now, _those_ had to be coincidences. There is no way a tiny child like him could have caused such things!"

Mitsuko sighed. Masao had never quite accepted all the peculiarities surrounding their son. He had no explanation for them, either – his solution seemed to be to ignore it all, deny that anything was wrong. Coincidences, indeed.

But he had a point. Some day she would _have_ to let Hikaru out into the world. And, she well realized this too, it might not be wise to put that day off too far.

So, next spring when school started Hikaru too entered the Kanba elementary school. This was a small school in a small town, and in addition to Hikaru there were only six other first grade students, three girls, three boys. Hikaru watched them with almost as great curiosity as they watched him, as he had spent quite reclusive life with his mother, barely ever leaving their little house. Not that he would have been lonely, as for most of the time he had had Sai for company (he never quite understood what his mother meant when she said he should stay away from water – how could he, when water was everywhere in the world?) but now he was quite excited with this sudden introduction to not just one but six children of his age.

Hikaru's mother had spoken with the teacher, explaining to her his situation as closely as she dared, not wanting to sound like a madwoman. The teacher in turn explained it to the class, trying to put it into words the children might understand. Her efforts were mostly wasted, for everyone was staring at Hikaru's hands, so fixated that they barely heard what she was saying.

Quite predictably a crowd gathered around Hikaru during the first break, as pretty much every single one of the school's forty three students wanted to see his hands.

"That's freaky!" a third grader announced after one look.

Hikaru gave him a curious look. "Why?"

"Cause people don't have hands like that! See!" He spread his fingers. "This is what hands should look like!"

Hikaru just laughed. "What's so great in having same kind of hands as everyone else? I like mine!" He raised his hands high up, fingers spread. "Or… are you jealous?"

"Of a freak? As if!" the other boy snorted, but, seeing that Hikaru didn't pay any attention to his taunts he soon ran away with his friends and a ball.

Hikaru enjoyed fully being at the center of other children's attention. He had never understood what in his hands bothered his mother so much, and now less than ever. He wouldn't have changed his hands to normal ones for any price.

"Isn't this great, Sai?" he whispered quietly as they were returning to class after the break.

_Yes_, he heard a quiet reply, and felt a hesitation, as if Sai was about to say something more but thought better of it. He didn't pay much attention to that though, too happy about the success of his first school day.

His mother was happy, too, when he told her how much he liked school. Next morning he left to school full of enthusiasm, and the next as well. This lasted for about one week. Then it finally sunk in to him that this was what he would be doing for the next week too, and the next week, and the next… and not just next weeks, but for the countless years to come (years that exceeded his age could be called countless, Hikaru reasoned.) And it wasn't just having to go to school five days a week, but also having homework, and something called exams looming in the future, the sound of which he _didn't _like.

Moreover, the interest of the other children was fading. Now he found himself spending the breaks alone. The other boys in his class were playing together, but their games, they explained to Hikaru, were such that they worked only if there were three people, and only three, so he never could join them. The older children had their own groups and didn't have room for some strange first grader either. No one, at least, was teasing him, except for some occasional gibes, but they pretty much ignored him, and after all the attention of the first days that hurt. And when they learned he wouldn't be taking part into the swimming classes, they laughed (a frog that can't swim!). Hikaru's mother had managed somehow to get a paper from doctors, releasing him from swimming, no matter what he thought about it.

One day on a lunch break he was sitting alone, munching his food, when one of the girls in his class came to him. "Can I sit here?" she asked, and after staring at her a moment he moved his head in a way that might have been a nod. She sat down next to him, and they ate together in silence.

Hikaru never quite figured out why Akari chose to be friends with him, but he was thankful she did – not that he ever would have said that aloud. Perhaps it was because while the other girls were playing house, she rather climbed trees or played ball games. Or maybe, he thought glumly, she just had felt sorry for him. Be that how it may, the two spent much time together from then on, Akari even coming to visit Hikaru's home, which made his mother quite happy. The girl might have found the place a little peculiar, what with no water and an outdoor toilet, but she seemed to like the old house and came over many times after that, even though it was quite a long walk from the town.

The first school year passed, and the second was well on its way, and finally Hikaru's mother felt like she might breathea sigh of relief. Nothing untoward had happened, and although Hikaru hadn't made many friends he had at least Akari, and he didn't seem unhappy. Of course, Hikaru had never told her how day by day, week by week he felt the water more and more strongly, how its constant whispering grew louder in his ears, and he just _had to_, many times in a day, go to the school's toilet just to hold his hands in the water. Talking with Sai helped, somewhat, but as a result of it all his concentration at school worsened and it was beginning to show in his grades.

As the second year was closing to its end something finally did happen.

The day had started badly for Hikaru. It had rained in the night, heavily, and he had slept restlessly, having strange, fragmentary dreams that had a nightmarish quality to them. He was tired and grumpy when his mother came to wake him up. The rain was over, but the ground was wet with big puddles here and there, and it seemed to him that the water's whispering was louder than usual, almost bothersome. It made it hard for him to think, and more often than once the teacher had to repeat her questions to him in the class, for even though he tried, he just somehow didn't catch what she said on the first time.

During a break he went to toilet, and having finished his business for once didn't waste any time with washing his hands. He was drying them off, very carefully, when two boys came to the toilet. He saw them out of the corner of his eye, and turned to leave without looking at them.

"Hey, it's the froggy freak!" one of the boys said, and stepped on his way as he tried to walk by. "Did you have a swim in the toilet? Be careful you don't drown!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "_That_ was just stupid," he informed the boy and attempted to step by him, but the other moved, staying on his way.

"Oh? Who's stupid here? Or did you have water in your ears in the class?"

Hikaru couldn't help laughing aloud at that. "If you'd only know," he muttered. He stood still a moment, waiting. "I'm trying to get out of here," he said then, as the other boy didn't move. He took a step, and the boy pushed him back.

"Froggy freak! Did your mom marry a frog or how did you end up like that?"

"Maybe he's a frog prince," the other boy suggested, and they laughed. Hikaru frowned; the blood humming in his ears mixed with the water whispering in the toilet's pipes, making it hard for him to even hear them – and he wasn't sure if it was quite worth the trouble to exert himself.

"Yeah! Maybe your girlfriend should kiss you to change you to human!"

"I dunno, her kiss would probably change him to a frog."

Hikaru took a deep breath and told himself to ignore them – or maybe that was Sai who said it, he wasn't quite sure. His head was _hurting_. He tried again to get past them, and again they pushed him back, saying something that he missed.

"Are you?" the boy repeated, and Hikaru blinked.

"What?"

The boys laughed again. "Deaf and dumb!"

"Definitely at least dumb!"

Hikaru attempted to get past them again, but joining hands they stayed on his way, keeping him in a corner. "Deaf 'n dumb froggy freak!" they singsonged.

Something snapped. "Let me out of here!" Hikaru screamed, and at the same instant the drains gurgled, and water burst out of every sink and toilet with strength. The three boys stood frozen in the sudden flood, getting instantly completely wet as the water spouted on them. Then Hikaru ran out, feet slipping on the wet floor.

They had to call his mother to take him home to get dry clothes – the weather was chilly, and he could hardly walk all the way home, wet as he was. His mother arrived fast, and watched the flooded bathroom dumbfounded. She glanced at her son who stared at the floor sullenly. Luckily everyone was so focused on the accident that no one seemed to notice how his hair was clearly inches longer than it had been when he left to school. It might have helped that the hair was completely wet and plastered against his head.

"We don't know what happened," the principal was saying. "Perhaps it's somehow connected to the heavy rain last night."

"Yes, perhaps," Mitsuko whispered and turned to take her son home.

At home Hikaru complained of headache, and she decided it would be best, under the circumstances, for him to stay rest of the day home. She attempted to ask him what had happened, but he ran into his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

_Hikaru_, Sai attempted to say as he plunged into his bed and drew the blanket over him. _Hikaru, you should…_

"Shut up Sai! Leave me be!" he yelled, face pressed against his pillow, and the watery presence retreated.

...

_It's not your fault_, Sai told him later. _There is great power in water, and it's hard to control._

"It's not that," Hikaru muttered quietly, still lying in his bed, curled into a small ball. "The water's growing so loud. It's been happening for a while, but it's never been that bad. I mean, I _love_ water, but why does it have to… to bother me so much?"

Sai was quiet for a moment. _I remember the Call getting stronger as I grew up, too_, he finally said.

Hikaru paused, thinking about what Sai had just said. "Do you mean… you've been alive once? I mean, like… like me?" He had never thought about where Sai came from – he had somehow assumed he had always been there, in the water.

_Yes_.

"What happened?"

There was a moment's silence. _I decided to join the water, _Sai said finally.

Hikaru mused about this for a while. "So… if I follow the call, I'll end up like you?"

_Yes._ Sai sounded happy about this prospect, but Hikaru wasn't quite sure.

"If I'm like you, I… I won't be able to talk with anyone else, would I? With anyone…" he glanced at his hands, "normal, that is?"

Sai said nothing, but he could feel his assent. He sighed, and thought of his mother and Akari.

"Are there many people like us?" he asked quietly. He could feel a headshake.

_No. In all my years, I've met only one other._

"Only one huh? That's not much." He rolled on his back and lay there staring at the ceiling. "Sai," he said then. "I don't think I want to, to join the water yet. Do you know any way I could make it more quiet?"

_You should find an onmyouji and ask him to give you a fire pendant._

"What?"

_But I have noticed,_ Sai went on, thoughtfully, _that there aren't many onmyouji around these days. So… there was one thing that helped me. A game called go._

Hikaru was skeptical, to say the least, but he listened as Sai started to tell him about the game, and to his surprise he found himself intrigued. Sai, on the other hand, was overjoyed, for it seemed that Hikaru shared his ability with the game. The boy was, of course, still a beginner and far from his level, but he started progressing fast. Hikaru was happy, too, for in addition to go being really fun, it also did help, just as Sai had promised.

A little later, when she asked him what he'd want to have as a birthday present, his mother was in for a surprise.

"That's what he said," she told her husband on phone. "Books about go and a go board."

Masao wondered about it, too, but when he arrived for Hikaru's eighth birthday he had a neatly wrapped parcel with him, and that parcel contained a book about the basics of go, clearly meant for children, and a foldable go board. Hikaru watched them dubiously. He would have preferred something a little more advanced.

He read the book through, though, just in case there would be something new – and there was, really; Sai had never heard of this strange komi rule – but other than that he did not learn much out of it. So he started to play with his toy-like little board. Soon he found out that against Sai he actually preferred blind go, for it was quite a pain having to place the stones for both players, but he played a few games with his mother on the board. She said she knew how the game was played, but he soon realized this just meant she knew the very basics and nothing more, and most of the time didn't seem to have a clue what she was doing on the board.

Sai suggested he could try to teach the game to someone, that someone being Akari for the lack of any other close friends. Hikaru was doubtful about it, though the girl seemed to be interested enough in the game. But she learned so _slowly_. More often than not their games ended up in fights, as Hikaru lost his patience with what he thought to be idiotic moves, and it wasn't overall surprising that gradually they stopped playing go altogether, and from then on he played only against Sai.

His mother thought that his interest in go had been, unsurprisingly, quite short-lived – she couldn't know that when he lay on his bed instead of playing on his board or reading his book, apparently dozing off, he was in fact engaged in quite a complicated game.

Go might have helped him to ignore water's call, but it didn't help him to concentrate in school, quite on the contrary. He was in a world of his own, most of the time, and during the third year his grades suddenly plummeted, giving his mother a new source of worry. She decided to start teaching him home after school, and Sai too tried to help, deciding they could, perhaps, at times talk about other things than go. It all helped but a little, though, and Hikaru made it to the last year of elementary school just barely passing all his exams.

_You really should find an onmyouji somewhere,_ Sai stated worriedly one day. _You need help. I was never quite this badly caught in the middle – but then again, I had my pendant since I was a baby. I wish I hadn't thrown it away, I could give it to you now…_

"Yeah, yeah," Hikaru muttered. It was summer vacation, and he was enjoying it fully, doing nothing. He lay on his back in the forest behind their house, at the moment listening more closely to the movements of ground water under him than to Sai. "I'm fine."

_You are _not_ fine_, Sai insisted._ I can see it. You have never really been fine, so you don't know the difference. What about that thing your mother uses, the computer thing that has a net in it? She said once you can find anything in the net. Do you think one could find an onmyouji there? Though I don't know if an onmyouji would let himself be caught in a net…_

Hikaru snorted. "You're so silly at times," he just said, but this had given him an idea. He sat up and thought for a moment. "I think I'll ask mom," he said then, standing up.

_About an onmyouji in the net?_

"Nope. This is better."

He found his mother in her workroom, where else, absorbed in her research for a new article. She was nowadays writing for more than just one magazine, and her articles had become relatively popular.

"Mom?" Hikaru asked by the door, and she glanced at him before turning back to her books.

"Yes, honey?"

"Can you play go on the internet?"

"What?" She paused from her reading. "Go?" She turned to look at him again. "Are you again getting interested in go?" She thought of his foldable go board that was collecting dust in the corner of his room. Or would have, if she hadn't wiped it clean every week.

"I've never stopped being interested in go, mom," Hikaru stated with some annoyance. "So, can you?"

"I don't know. I'd imagine. We can look into it when I'm finished."

"But you're not using the computer now…"

"When I'm finished, Hikaru."

That evening she found something called World Igo Net, and created an account for Hikaru, a little amused about her son's eagerness. The boy hadn't been playing for three years and now he wanted to play against people all around the world? She shook her head a little, but figured he might have come up with worse ways to spend his time. So she left Hikaru to sit by her computer and headed to make supper for them, wondering as she went about the username he had chosen, sai. It sounded oddly familiar, where had she heard it before…?

A while later she took off her apron and shouted over her shoulder, "Supper's ready, Hikaru!" The boy had been wonderfully quiet, apparently completely absorbed in whatever he was doing. She wondered if he was still playing go, or if he had found something else on the internet. "Hikaru!" she repeated when there came no answer. "Did you hear me?"

Still the silence continued, and shaking her head she walked to the workroom. "Hikaru? Supper's ready," she said as she stopped by the door. To her surprise she saw the boy was still playing go. "Stop that and come to eat."

Hikaru shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye. "I can't stop now, mom," he said, sounding annoyed. "It's not a computer game, I'm playing against a person!"

"The food will get cold. Can't you resign?"

"What?" Now she got a glare. "I'm winning this game! Just a moment, mom, this is over in a minute."

It took in the end almost ten minutes for the game to end. Hikaru arrived to the kitchen, looking cheerful. His mother gave him a look. "So, did you win?"

"Yeah!" He sat happily down and grasped his chopsticks. "And that guy was pretty good, too!" He took the first bite and grimaced. "Mom, this is cold!"

"I told you it'd be getting cold if you don't come right away."

He grimaced again. "Next time tell me when the food's gonna be ready so I know not to start a new game."

"We always eat at the same time, Hikaru," his mother pointed out.

Hikaru said nothing. After the supper he made a beeline to the computer and logged back in. Mitsuko watched after him shaking her head. So he had won a game? Well, surely there were all kinds of players online. She was happy about it, though – winning might keep him interested in go, and that was a better hobby for him than many she would have thought might interest him.

...

_This is wonderful, Hikaru! _Hikaru had seldom felt such excitement from Sai, he almost felt like if he turned to look, he might see someone standing behind his back, gripping eagerly his shoulders. _I don't even pretend to understand how all these great players can be within this box, but I'm so happy you found them! Can I play the next game?_

"You just played, it's my turn now," Hikaru muttered. "Take it easy."

_Can I get the next one after you, then?_

"If mom still lets us play," Hikaru promised, and got a surge of excitement and happiness as a reply.

Having just one computer was a bit of a pain, Hikaru soon concluded, especially since his mother needed it for her work. He tried to suggest getting a laptop of his own, but his mother just laughed at the idea. She promised Hikaru could play a game or two every evening – "it's not good for you to spend much time in front of the computer, anyway" – and that was it.

A game or two a day just wasn't enough, especially since Sai wanted to play too. And to crown it all, school started again, filling his supposedly idle hours with homework, and there was even less time for go than before. But one day when school was over Hikaru got an idea, and he sneaked into the computer classroom. The school had a grand total of two computers, but that was fine – he needed only one. He closed the door behind him, turned the computer on, and sat down stretching his fingers. "A few games here, a few at home, wouldn't that be great?" he whispered.

_Are you sure this is ok?_ It was drizzling outside, and as usual the higher humidity made Sai's voice clearer to him. It also made him feel the doubt in his companion more strongly. _Shouldn't you ask someone?_

"It's fine! But if you don't want to play, you don't have to."

_Of course I want to play, Hikaru~!_

"Let's get started then," he grinned. "I take the first game, you get the next."

He logged in, and immediately they got a few game requests – they were beginning to get known across the internet. Hikaru eyed the names, chose one that was new to him, and the game was on.

A long while later a text flashed on the screen to tell him his opponent had resigned. "Yeah! One more victory!" Hikaru exclaimed and stretched. "Now Sai, it's your…"

The door opened and one of the school's teachers looked in, frowning as he saw the boy. "Shindou-kun? What are you doing here?"

"I… I just…"

"Do you have a permission to use the computer?" The man's frown deepened. "You shouldn't…"

"I was playing go, sensei!" Hikaru put in hurriedly. "That's all. I… I don't have anyone to play with and I heard you can play online, so I thought to check it out…" At Sai's urging he stood up and bowed. "I'm very sorry."

"Go?" The teacher walked to the computer and leaned closer to take a look, adjusting his glasses on his nose. "We'll, so it seems. And it looks like you won? Well, this is a surprise. I wouldn't have guessed that you of all our students would be interested in go." He laughed a little. "But you should still have asked for permission."

"I'm sorry," Hikaru repeated. "I'll go now…"

"No, no, wait." The teacher grasped another chair and drew it closer. "Why don't you play a game with me? We have a go program on this computer, here. So, let's play a game? I'm curious."

Hikaru sat back down. "Okay…"

_Hikaru,_ Sai said very quietly. _Let me play this game._

"What? But…" Hikaru glanced at the teacher sitting beside him and shrugged. _Whatever. Your turn, anyway._

They hadn't played for long when Hikaru began to grow annoyed. He couldn't understand what Sai was doing – this man was an average player at best and they should have beaten him easily. The way Sai was playing it would soon take a miracle for them to win.

_Trust me,_ _Hikaru_, Sai whispered at one point when the boy's annoyance was beginning to leek to his face. _I have a reason to play like this._

Hikaru heaved out a big sigh. After a while he could see that there was no way they would anymore win this game. They played still a few moves, and then Sai whispered to him, _I think it's time for you to resign._

Hikaru sighed again. "I've lost," he mumbled quietly, not looking at his opponent. _Damn you, Sai_, he thought to himself. _It's not fair that _I _have to say it when it's _you_ who lost…_

"Thank you for the game." The man sounded quite pleased. "That was a good game, Shindou-kun. I'm quite happy we have a promising go-player like you in our school. Have you thought about playing in tournaments?"

"No," Hikaru answered truthfully.

"Well, you should. As I said, this was a very good game. Would you like to discuss it, so we could go through what little mistakes you made?"

"No thanks," Hikaru said. He well knew what mistakes had been made in that game. The whole game was one big mistake. "Mom must be waiting for me. I didn't tell her I wouldn't come straight home from school."

"It's best for you to go then. For the future, _ask,_ before you do something like this, alright? And remember to tell your mother too. Now, you said you have no one to play with? I can arrange for you to play games here sometimes, after school, if this room is not in other use. And perhaps we can play again on some day?"

"Yes, sure." Hikaru smiled a little weakly. "Thanks." He left quickly.

"What was that about, Sai?" he muttered angrily as he started walking toward home. "Why did you play like that?"

_That man wasn't such a bad player. He would have realized there is something strange going on, if a self-taught boy like you could beat him so easily. This is safer._

"Safer?" Hikaru snorted. "I think you're being paranoid. So what if he'd have thought I'm some go genius? I mean, I _am_ a go genius, right? Why not let the world know?"

Sai was silent. The air felt somehow colder than before, even the water's voice was quiet, as if holding its breath. Then, _It's too early for that_, Sai said, and something in his voice made Hikaru swallow his objections. They walked home in silence after that.

Getting to play at school wasn't a bad deal, even if Hikaru had to play some occasional bad games against the teacher. He told his mother he was taking part in after school activities, in a go club, which he thought was quite true – so what if he was the only one in the club. A couple of hours of go after school and then some more at home did take quite a lot of time from homework, though, and at some point his mother suggested that perhaps he wouldn't need to be quite so active with his "after-school activities". As Hikaru carried on as before she took a different approach and limited his go time home to half an hour – "and only after homework is done!" – which was slightly annoying. Still, better than nothing.

Being able to play more games online made Hikaru and Sai's common reputation spread even faster, and now their account was flooding with game requests every time they logged in. Their opponents were a varied lot, some of them clearly still beginners (why do these people want to play against _us_, Hikaru would wonder, and, they want to learn – play a teaching game, Sai would reply), but some of them were quite excellent players. Still, Sai never lost a single of his games, and after a short while Hikaru became quite as undefeatable as him, winning also against those few players who had managed to beat him in the very beginning.

One day after school Hikaru once again logged into his account on the World Igo Net, and grimaced at the flood of requests. "This is getting ridiculous," he remarked to Sai as he kept on declining one request after another. "And the names these people use! How do they come up with them?" He clicked a button to decline yet another game, and eyed the list of users online. "So, it's your turn to start. Who do you want to play?"

_All the same to me! Just pick one of them already!_

"Okay, so I'll take one by lot…" Hikaru closed his eyes and moved the cursor across the screen. "So…" he opened his eyes, "what about this 'akira'?" He grinned. "Now, _that_ name's so ordinary it's almost boring."


	3. Interlude: Akira

This is a very, very short chapter, yes I know, in fact I'm not sure if it's actually a chapter at all, but I just wanted to have some Akira in the story, and I decided it's best to post this separately. In the next chapter we return to Hikaru.

Thank you for your comments, 19x19, DYquem, and koryandrs! Warmly appreciated.

* * *

**Interlude: Akira**

Touya Akira had first heard of sai at his father's go salon. He hadn't paid much attention to it then, for although he had at times dabbled in net go, he preferred having real stones in his hands and opponents whose faces he could see, and he wasn't interested in some anonymous net players. And he knew how easily excited some of the patrons were – surely they would shortly find something else over which to obsess.

Next time he heard the name at the Ki'in when he was going to his father's study group – some insei were talking about this mysterious net player. Once again he walked by without giving it a second thought. When he ran across the name for the third time, though, it made a more lasting impression on him: Ichiryu-sensei and Zama-sensei were talking about sai as they came out of the elevator, and from the sound of it, Ichiryu-sensei had lost his game against this sai.

In addition to that, the people at his father's go salon were still talking about sai although nearly a month had passed. If anything, their obsession had just grown. So, he figured, it might be interesting to check out this sai one of these days.

And so, one day, he was sitting by his computer and watching how sai annihilated one opponent after another, and all he could think of was 'his game is beautiful!' He logged in (after he remembered his password, which did take a while) and asked for a game, but was declined. After that he stood back, just watching, until one day sai suddenly asked _him_ for a game.

He was home alone. He had nowhere to go. The timing couldn't have been better. And, he knew, even if the timing had been worst possible, he would still have played this game.

...

"That was a fun game," Hikaru stated quietly in the computer class of Kanba elementary school. Akira had lasted longer than many – he was clearly a good player – but even he had to resign in the end. But it wasn't just his skill that Hikaru was talking about.

_He played very inspiring go_, Sai agreed with him. _I wouldn't mind playing against him again some day._

Hikaru sat silently, watching the screen and the finished game. _Hikaru? _Sai asked. _It's your turn to play._

"Oh? Oh, yes." The boy seemed to awaken from deep thoughts. "Sure. So, let's see, hmm… Zelda? Okay, I think I'll play him." Hikaru started a new game, and the one Sai had played with akira disappeared from the screen.

...

So, Akira thought after he was through revising the game for the third time, this 'sai' truly lived up to his reputation. He could understand why everyone was obsessing about his identity so. He wouldn't have minded finding out who sai was, himself. A pro? With his skills nothing else made sense, but he couldn't think of anyone who would be so strong. Strong enough that he wasn't sure if even his father would be able to win…

He wondered if his father knew about sai, and if he did, if he had ever watched sai's games. He thought about what an incredible game it would be if his father and sai were ever to play, and shuddered a little. He was, almost, happy that his father never played net go. The idea of that game was frightening.

He was very quiet that evening, and once he went to bed it took him long to fall asleep.

Next day when Akira woke up the first thing in his mind was sai. He thought about sai as he dressed up and ate his breakfast, couldn't really shake him off even during the game he played with his father. sai followed him to school and preoccupied his thoughts throughout the lessons, and as he left from school he was wondering how sai would have responded to his moves, if he had played some parts just a _little_ differently.

He didn't go to his father's go salon this time as he usually did after school, but headed straight to the Ki'in. If, he figured, anyone had any idea of who sai truly was it would be someone there. He had no luck, though. He spoke with professionals, with staff, with editors of Go Weekly(who would have just _loved_ to find out who sai was), but no one had a clue, and in the end he had to return home, having learned nothing. Apparently all he could do was just to swallow his disappointment and, together with the rest of the world, hope sai would reveal himself some day. And after all, he told himself, what did it matter who sai was? They were still able to play go against him (or her?) online. That had to be enough.

...

"Look, there's that 'akira' again. Want to play him or someone new this time?"

...

As days rolled by, turning into weeks and then months, Akira was able to play against sai a few more times. Every day after school he hurried to a nearby internet café, instead of his father's go salon where he was seen only rarely these days, for sai was usually online at that time (and when he thought what _that _might mean, he couldn't help feeling a surge of surely misplaced excitement – a player like sai simply couldn't be a schoolchild. Still, every now and then he did allow himself to dream.) He followed all the games he could, and when sai wasn't playing he studied countless game records. To his joy he had found a site online that had collected pretty much all sai's records, also from the early days when he didn't yet know of sai. He had a big bunch of them printed out in his room, neatly organized in folders for easy reviewing. And it was those old records that confused him.

"It's very peculiar," he told his father one evening when they had finished the dinner and his mother was cleaning the table. "Some of the games he played back then, although they were certainly excellent games too, were clearly weaker than his other games. It's almost as if… as if there had been two players then, and sometimes it feels like there _still_ are, but it's frightening enough to think that there's _one_ strong player like that, but if there are two…"

"Akira," his father said, but he didn't hear, eyes fixed into distance, as if he were trying to see through time and space and catch a glimpse of this "ghost in the net", as some had (half) jokingly called sai.

"I was thinking that maybe a student and a teacher, for their styles really are awfully similar, but even so, the student is learning too fast, much too fast, and I just…"

"Akira." The word was sharper, heavier, and now it got his attention.

"Yes, father?"

Touya Kouyou sighed. "I have been thinking," he said slowly, carefully, "that you spend too much time obsessing about this sai. I have seen his games, I know his strength, and I can understand why he enthralls you so, but you're overdoing it. You should stay away from him, at least for a while. It is not good to concentrate like that on the games of just one single player. Besides… I don't deny it that there is, potentially, much we all could learn from him, but there is something shady about a man who hides his identity like this, and something even shadier about his strength. I can't help feeling that this secret is best left unrevealed."

"But, father…" he tried to put in, but his father raised a hand, cutting him off.

"You have your future, your own career to think of. Concentrate on that, on the real, flesh and blood opponents who face you across a go board. It is with them you can find true go. Leave this ghost for others to chase."

"Yes father," Akira said quietly, watching his hands. Father had a point, he thought. Maybe he really was carrying his obsession too far. He had even been dreaming just about sai and his games nearly every night for a while. But even as he decided he would from now on try to avoid sai and net go, he knew it wouldn't be easy for him to ignore the existence of such a player.

* * *

**A/N: **Should I have written more about the game? I thought about it, but writing go games is not my strong point... and somehow, in this case, the game just didn't want to be written.

I'll try to get the next chapter finished soon. (note the word 'try'.)


	4. Chapter 3: Tokyo

There truly is no try, huh? Well, from now on I won't be talking about when I "try" to update. I just promise you that I will, sooner or later.

Thank you, again, for the reviewers (I hope everyone's stayed sane so far, this fic's hardly worth losing you mind!), and all who've favorited/watched this too! And one more general comment: Hikaru's great skill at go is partly due to the lack of any other distractions, true, but there are other reasons behind it, too. But I guess I won't go into that, yet...

* * *

**Chapter 3: Tokyo**

One weekend, as the year was nearing its end, Hikaru's father came again to visit them. Hikaru was happily playing go on his mother's computer while his parents had a long talk. He had been able to play two games completely unbothered when his father's voice called for him. He was just about to start a new game, but the tone of the voice told him that he'd better put it off for a moment.

"Hikaru," his father said as he entered the room. "We have been talking about you two moving to Tokyo."

Hikaru stopped at the doorway, hovering there, hesitant. His mother looked at him and her eyes were dry, but he could smell tears in the air, and he was quite certain it wasn't his father who had cried.

"We haven't quite reached an agreement yet, though," his father went on, sounding displeased. "And so we thought that perhaps you could come to spend some time in Tokyo during the winter break. We could spend the New Year there. How would you like that?"

_That_ caught Hikaru's attention. "New Year at Tokyo?"

"It's true that everything's been going quite well for a long while," Mitsuko said quietly. "This would be a good test. Maybe we really could move to Tokyo when you start middle school."

Hikaru stood still, thinking. Move to Tokyo, to stay? He thought about what he knew about the city (which wasn't much, and mainly based on movies and manga): towering buildings, bright lights, hordes of people and cars. Then he thought about their little house, the town, the forest in which he and Akari at times played – and he thought of Akari, and all the people he knew, and all the people in Tokyo he _didn't_ know, and who didn't know him, and who would find his hands freaky.

"Yeah," he said finally. "I guess it'd be a good test."

"So, it's decided!" Masao said, standing up as if they were going to leave right away. He smiled at his son. "I'm sure you'll love Tokyo. You can't even imagine how different it is from this place. And," he went on, turning to Mitsuko, "if you were to move there, I could supervise his studies myself. If his grades stay like this in middle school, he won't ever make it into high school! You must have been too lax with him."

Mitsuko was shaking her head. "I doubt he would have done any better in Tokyo. He just isn't interested in anything but go these days."

"Umm," Hikaru said. He didn't want to listen to this conversation. "I'm gonna go back to play."

As he left the room, he heard his mother's voice behind his back. "See? It's all but impossible to keep him away from the game." He didn't listen to his father's reply. Sitting down by the computer he stared at its screen where the screensaver was making wavy patterns, at the same time excited and oddly anxious.

_Your mother seemed somehow distressed_, Sai pointed out. As Hikaru said nothing, he went on, _I just wonder why? My mother would have been overjoyed if my father had invited her to live in his mansion… and your father doesn't even have other wives, does he? Your mother is truly in a happy position!_

Hikaru sighed. "I've no clue what you're talking about, Sai," he muttered and started a new game.

…

A couple of weeks later they arrived to Tokyo. They were going to stay at his father's small apartment, nowadays, luckily, a little bigger than a simple studio, for that would have become quite crowded. Even so, Hikaru could sense that Sai was not overly impressed.

"Not exactly a mansion," Hikaru whispered to him, amused. "What did you expect?"

_The times, of course, are different,_ Sai stated diplomatically. _This is a very… nice… apartment._

Hikaru shot a look around the room. His father really hadn't seen the need to get any more furnishings that absolutely necessary. "Is not," he stated dryly. But that didn't matter. It wasn't for the apartment that they were there. A week in Tokyo! That was something.

No movie or manga would ever do justice to Tokyo, Hikaru concluded quite soon. One had to experience the skyscrapers, the masses, the jungle of lights to really understand it. The first time his father took him sightseeing, he was a little overwhelmed, but the feeling disappeared soon, giving way to excitement. So much to see and explore! And so he started exploring, and within the first two days managed to lose his parents three times. His mother was beginning to despair, trying to make him understand that a big city like this could be dangerous, and his father strictly told him that if he got lost one more time, he'd spend the rest of the trip in the little apartment – with no access to net go.

"It's not my fault, really," Hikaru muttered to Sai, annoyed. "The waters flow all wrong here!"

_I know_, Sai agreed. _It is often like that in big cities, these days. But that means your parents are right. We need to be more careful when we can't count on the water to guide us_.

"Annoying," Hikaru stated. This was a side of Tokyo he didn't like – there was nothing natural about the movement of the water in the ground. There _was_ water, quite a lot of water, flowing around everywhere in the city, but its directions made no sense. Back at home he was able to feel from the ground where he was, but here the water _misled_ him, and that was quite disturbing.

_With time, we might learn_, Sai said. _But for now, let's be careful._

"Alright then," Hikaru sighed. And the very next day they got lost again.

.

"It's all your fault," Hikaru muttered as they vainly tried to spot his father in the crowd on the busy street.

_My fault? How can it be _my _fault that you lost him again?_

"I just stopped cause you were so excited about those stupid fake fishes!" Hikaru exclaimed aloud and got weird looks from the passers-by. He waved toward a shop window where a bunch of mechanical fishes were swimming around in an aquarium.

_But… but even so, you could have…_

"Well, whatever." Hikaru stood on his toes in a vain attempt to see farther. "It's _his _fault, really. He should have kept an eye on me and not the other way round."

_It's probably because of that phone call he got. Why are they calling him from work if he has vacation?_

"How should I know?" Hikaru sighed. "Let's wait here, I'm sure he comes back when he notices I'm missing."

Time passed. Hikaru watched the passing people, beginning to grow bored, when Sai suddenly exclaimed, _Look, Hikaru!_

"What?" Hikaru shot a glance around. "Is it dad?"

_Up there! Look up there! See that sign?_

It took Hikaru a moment to realize what Sai was talking about.

"Go, huh," he said then.

_There's a go salon! _Sai's excitement was enough to make his palms itch. _Let's go to take a look!_

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Dad might come back soon…"

_Yes_… Sai paused. _But… just a quick peek?_

Hikaru rolled his eyes and said nothing. Even so, his eyes kept on wandering to the sign.

"What's taking him so long," he finally muttered. "This is ridiculous."

He stared at the sign. "Oh well. He's probably mad at us what ever we do. And if we're gonna spend the rest of the week grounded anyway, better to take this chance, right?"

Sai was practically bubbling with joy in his mind as he started walking toward the sign.

The go salon was in the eighth floor. Hikaru paused at the door – it was his first time in such place, and his eyes wandered across the room. Mainly old geezers, he noted a little disappointedly. The only woman in the room was the one standing behind a desk. She was giving him a wide smile.

"Welcome! First time here?"

"First time in a place like this," Hikaru answered. "Can anyone play here?"

"Sure! I just need your…"

"Hey look, there's a kid there!" Hikaru exclaimed, not listening to her. He started walking past her, and she was waving frantically, trying to get his attention.

"It's 500Y for children," she called. _That_ did catch Hikaru's attention.

"What?" he stopped to give her a stunned look. "I have to _pay_?" He patted his pockets. If he counted all his coins, he thought, he might have – barely – three hundred. "Umm…"

The other boy had walked to them. "It's his first time here, so why don't you let him come free?" he said with a smile at the woman, who practically swooned at him.

"Whatever you say, Akira-kun," she said in voice so sweet Hikaru gave her a weird look.

_Akira-kun_, he heard Sai echoing the woman and turned back to the boy.

_A coincidence_, Hikaru thought back at him, but gave the boy a long, estimating look, nevertheless.

"I'm Shindou Hikaru," he introduced himself with a bright smile. "And you…"

"Touya Akira. Nice to meet you." The boy was smiling politely to him now, but somehow, Hikaru thought, the smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "So, you play go?" Akira went on, and kept on smiling as Hikaru nodded. "That's great. We don't really see children here too often."

"I guess. So, can we play?"

"Sure." Akira led him to a free board. "How many stones do you want?"

Hikaru raised his eyebrows at him. Then he grinned. "To be honest, I think that's my question."

Akira looked a little taken aback, but only momentarily. "Let's play an even game, then?" he suggested.

They chose for color, and Hikaru got black. When he picked his first stone to play, he noticed the slightest frown on Akira's face, but it disappeared soon.

_You should learn how to hold the stones properly_, Sai told him.

_Yeah, sure. Some day._

It was clear that Akira didn't quite take him seriously from the beginning. Or… that was wrong, Hikaru realized as he watched his opponent – he got a feeling that this boy was unable _not_ to take anything go related seriously. But he had started the game most likely thinking he would be playing a teaching game. Hikaru grinned inwardly.

Well, if a teaching game was what he wanted, he'd get one.

_Don't be nasty now, _Sai chided him, but he didn't dignify that with a reply.

It was almost amusing to watch Akira's face during the game. It didn't take the boy long to realize that his opponent indeed was skilled. Hikaru could easily spot the moment he understood _he_ was the one being taught.

_Hikaru… take it easy_, Sai said again. _Don't play too good a game._

_You're getting boring, Sai. Why not? He's just a kid, like me – why would it be weird if I won?_

_You know he's not 'just a kid,_ Sai said sharply, and Hikaru paused.

It was true that this boy's game really was good. Of course, Hikaru couldn't quite know on what level children of his age usually played – and many of his online opponents had been clearly stronger than Akira… but even so.

_Too late for that_, he just thought. _He knows already I'm playing shidougo with him._

The game went on in silence. Akira's eyes never left the board, but Hikaru found himself observing his opponent more closely than the game.

_Akira,_ he thought. _His play is familiar. Do you think… should we ask him if he plays net go?_

_What if he asks you if you play?_ Sai replied quietly.

Hikaru bit his lip. He looked at the board, and the game that was getting close to its end. _I… don't know. What should we do?_

What should he do _if _this was the 'akira' from net go, and _if _he realized he was playing against 'sai'?

Two pretty big ifs, Hikaru thought to himself, and tried to push the thought away. Even so he found himself playing moves that were not typical to him, just to mislead his opponent. But what would it matter _if_ both of those ifs are correct, he asked himself, and had no reply. Somehow he still was nervous, suddenly feeling the surroundings quite clearly. The water. In the tea the players were drinking. In the pipes in the walls.

_Sai_, he thought sharply. _Is that you? Stop it, you're making me nervous._

_I'm sorry, Hikaru_, Sai whispered back to him. _I can't help it. You mustn't let anyone find out about us._

_Why?_

_Because… because it could be dangerous._ Sai sounded genuinely worried, and that confused Hikaru. What was there in a young kid to scare a spirit?

_You're being silly, Sai_, he informed his companion, but even so he shuddered a little, feeling the tension in the air.

And the water. The water. The water in the air, in the people around him, in the bonsai tree on a nearby table. He all but shivered, feeling it course through his own veins, the pull of it in _Akira's _veins…

He took a deep breath. "Dad," he muttered, a sudden thought coming to his mind. He stood up so suddenly his chair almost fell. "I need to go. Dad's waiting."

And he ran away, leaving Akira stare after him, stunned.

He was lucky. The elevator was in the right floor. He rushed in, pushed the ground floor button. As the doors were closing he heard running steps, a voice calling him. "Shindou! Shindou-kun! Are you…"

The door closed, cutting off the rest of the sentence.

He kept on running as they came down. After a while, as his side was beginning to hurt nastily, he slowed down, and as he glanced over his shoulder and saw no one following them finally stopped.

"Sai," he muttered under his breath, "_what _was that about? It's not like you to panic like that!"

_I'm sorry_, was all his companion had to say.

After that he went into a store, asked to borrow a phone to call his father, who was _not _pleased when he arrived. Still, he admitted that this time he was just as much at fault as Hikaru, and said nothing about the threat of being grounded.

_I think he has something else on his mind_, Sai pointed out, as Hikaru whispered to him how lucky they were. As it was, his father had barely reprimanded him. They met his mother at a café – she had been doing some shopping of her own – and Sai's observation turned out to be true.

"I got a call from my boss," Masao said as he and Hikaru sat down with their coffee and hot chocolate, respectively. "I know this is a short notice, but we've been invited to a New Year's party. He'd somehow heard you're here, and he said he wanted to take this chance to 'meet my family'."

"Oh dear." Mitsuko was grasping her tea with both hands, looking a little stunned. "I'm not sure if I have anything suitable to wear…"

"That dress you took with in the case we go to a restaurant should be fine enough," Masao said dismissively. "I'm more worried about…" he glanced at his son who met his gaze with a clueless look and a chocolate moustache.

"What?" Hikaru blinked. Then he caught on. "It sounds boring anyway. Do I have to come?"

"We were all invited. It would be rude if you didn't come."

Hikaru grimaced, and Masao turned to look at his wife. "See? Do you think he can behave himself?"

"Of course I can!" Hikaru exclaimed.

"He can," Mitsuko said evenly. "But… do they know about his…" She left the sentence hanging.

"They know he has a medical condition. I haven't really told anyone the details. But it shouldn't be a big deal."

"If you say so." Mitsuko sipped her tea, looking doubtful.

…

So, a couple of days later, Hikaru found himself dressed up more fancily than ever before. His mother had even bought him a tie. It was tight around his neck, and every time she looked away he tried to pull it a little looser.

Sai was sympathetic. _The clothes of your era_, he stated, _really look uncomfortable. So… tight._

_Tell me about it_, Hikaru thought at him darkly. This wasn't how he had dreamed about spending the New Year in Tokyo. Well, he wasn't exactly sure what he had thought they'd do – there would be fireworks, that he knew – but a boring cocktail party hadn't been an option in his mind. At least the food in the buffet was good and no one stared too openly at his hands. _And _his father's boss's house might have been a bit closer to what Sai meant with a 'mansion', what came to that. Not a bad place. He hoped he'd be able to do some exploring at some point.

_Perhaps_, Sai told him. _But remember, we're quests here. You can't just do whatever you want to. _

_Yeah, yeah, I know._ Hikaru was clearly paying more attention to his food than in what was being said to him.

Hikaru wasn't the only youngster in the room. His father's boss had apparently decided that this was a good time to get to know not just Masao's family, but quite many others as well. Though, as Sai noted to Hikaru who wasn't listening, he didn't seem to be spending much time 'getting to know' that many people.

"This is an important chance for me," Masao had impressed on them before the party. "I've never before been invited to my boss's home before. This is a _sophisticated_ party, and you need to be on your best behavior." Technically he was talking to both Hikaru and Mitsuko, but his eyes had been dwelling on his son.

"Sure, dad," Hikaru had said lightly, his mind wandering somewhere far away, and Sai had sighed, deciding that he would do his best to chaperone the boy. So far, so good. People certainly did give the boy some odd glances at times, both at his hands and at his hair, and every now and then Mitsuko had to tell him in sharp whisper not to stuff himself at such rate, but at least the boy hadn't done or said anything rude. So far. It probably did help that most of the time his mouth was full of food.

_Hikaru_, Sai chided him as he headed toward the buffet one more time. _Haven't you had enough yet?_

_This is good. What'd you know? You don't need to eat._

_Even so. Look, there are some other boys talking in that corner. Why don't you go to talk with them?_

Hikaru shot a look to the direction Sai indicated. _I don't know. I'm not sure if I have much to say to them. _

_Don't be such a hermit, Hikaru! Come now, you can always try!_

"Whatever." Hikaru approached the boys slowly, but stopped soon, hesitating. The boys, three of them, were all older than him. They were talking about computer games, or PlayStation, maybe, he wasn't quite sure. He stood there and listened, and thought it did actually sound kind of fun. Maybe he should ask for PlayStation for his next birthday.

Sai felt doubtful. _Do you think one can play go on it?_ he asked

Hikaru shrugged. _No clue. But it could be fun to play something else, too._

Now one of the boys had noticed him hovering behind them, and turned to look at him.

"Hey," he said. "I don't remember seeing you before. I'm Morioka."

"Narita," said another. The third one, youngest, stared at him a moment.

"Isobe," he said then. A short while Hikaru wondered why the name sounded familiar; then he realized it was his father's boss's name.

"Shindou Hikaru," he said, bowing his head a little.

"So, I take it your father works for my father," Isobe said, and Hikaru disliked him immediately. Not for the words themselves, but the way he said it, literally looking at him down his nose. "What does he do?"

"He…" Hikaru paused. What _did_ his father do? He didn't have a clue. "Oh, he's got an important position. He's been awfully busy lately – I don't wanna brag, but his work is vital for the company."

_Hikaru…_ Sai said in a slightly reproachful tone.

The boy was still staring at him with this slightly haughty look on his face, when his eyes fell on Hikaru's hands and he frowned

"What's the matter with your hands?"

All three were staring at them, and Hikaru too glanced at his hands self-consciously. "It's… it's just some kind of syndactyly, that's all." From the looks of the boys he figured they didn't know the word, but he wasn't about to start explaining. Their problem.

"We were just talking of our favorite games," Morioka said after a while. "You like gaming?"

Hikaru shrugged. "Dunno. I don't really play other games than go."

"Go?" For the fist time there was something akin to interest in Isobe's eyes. "_You_ play go?"

The way he said it, skepticism clear in his voice, made Hikaru find him even more annoying.

"Yeah," he said with a tilt of his head. "Why not?"

"You just… didn't seem the type. Have you played long?"

"A few years. So, you play too?"

"Yes." Isobe was still watching him with a long, evaluating look, as if trying to figure out whether or not this conversation was worth carrying on. "I do," he said then, apparently deciding on the former.

Hikaru grinned. The guy couldn't be a total idiot, he figured, if he played go. "That's great! I don't know many kids of our age that play. Actually, just one."

"Oh?" Isobe raised his eyebrows at him. "Your school doesn't have a go club then?"

"Well… no." Hikaru didn't quite feel like starting to explain where he was from and what his school was like. He didn't know for sure, but he had a feeling that a single class in a school around here would have almost as many students as his school had altogether. "But I just met someone the other day," he went on, wishing to change the subject. "A guy called Touya Akira. It was fun playing with him." _Until someone freaked out_, he added in his mind, and felt mild embarrassment from Sai.

A sneer flashed on Isobe's face. "Touya Akira? You played against him? Must have been sheer slaughter."

"What?" Hikaru gave him a surprised look. "Why? He played pretty well!"

"Pretty well?" Isobe laughed out loud, a short, bitter bark. "Are you just stupid or are you trying to brag? I've played that guy and I…" He paused.

"Wow," Narita exclaimed. "I didn't know you've played with Touya Akira! Did you win?"

Isobe's face was very blank. "Not… quite. But anyway, the point is that I _know_ the level of his go, and if you think you're impressing me when you say he played 'pretty well', as if you had won against him or something, you…"

"But I did win," Hikaru put in. Well, technically the game remained unfinished, but he most definitely could not have lost.

Isobe paused, stared at him. "You expect me to believe that?"

"I don't really expect anything," Hikaru said, frowning and beginning to grow annoyed again. "But I won."

"That," Isobe said with emphasis, "is just about as likely as your dad being of any importance. I'd know his name if he were. And I'd sure as hell know _your name_ if you were good enough to beat Touya Akira!" he all but yelled.

_I told you Akira is not 'just a kid',_ Sai stated. Hikaru wasn't listening.

"Just cause _you_ lost to him doesn't mean no one else would be able to beat him either! Who do you think you are, some kinda go champion?"

"He _is_ the child meijin," Narita pointed out, giving him a contemptuous look.

"So? That's supposed to impress me or something?"

"You…"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Morioka stepped between them as Narita took a step forward. "No need to start fighting here!"

"True," Isobe said, face calm again. "I don't want to cause a scene at father's party. But if you'll come with me, we can play a game. Someone needs to show this brat his place."

"Who's the brat here?" Hikaru retorted, but followed him.

They left behind the noise of the party and, passing through a hall and a stairway, reached a small study. Isobe took out a go board and sat down. Without waiting for invitation Hikaru took a chair and sat too.

"Shall we choose for color, or will you just take black?" Isobe asked. Hikaru rolled his eyes.

"Believe me, it makes no difference."

Isobe shrugged and gave black to him. _No use to tell me play nice now,_ Hikaru thought to Sai as he took the first stone.

Sai sighed. _I can see that_, he just said.

Hikaru played his first move, and Isobe snorted at the way he held the stone. "Someone who claims to have beaten Touya Akira doesn't know how to hold the stones properly?"

Hikaru glared daggers at him. "You'd better pay more attention to my moves than to how I play them."

A tiny smile tugged Isobe's lips at that as he played his first move.

As the game proceeded, Hikaru gradually calmed down. He didn't lose his anger, but it turned, changed, from frothing like a sea in storm to an ice-cold determination. This would not be a long game.

After a few moves Hikaru was inwardly shaking his head. _What was this guy doing, talking so big? He's nowhere near to Touya's level!_

_But still he is very good for his age,_ Sai said. Hikaru frowned, disbelieving. _As I keep on telling you, _Sai went on, sounding a little exasperated, _Touya Akira is _not_ just any kid._

Hikaru glanced at his opponent. Isobe was good enough to realize the game was not going well for him. He kept on trying, strained with each move to gain more territory, but no matter what he did, a wall of black stones rose in front of him.

So this was the level kids play at their best, Hikaru thought wonderingly. Now he understood better why Sai claimed people would find his skills so impossible.

This guy, he mused thoughtfully, wasn't half as good as Touya, but acted as if he were the best player in the world. Touya, on the other hand, had started playing a gentle teaching game with him, without a word of his own skills. Not to mention that his go was simply much more… inspirational. Isobe simply pursued territory with single-minded determination, seemingly unable to be imaginative with new moves when he faced new situations. A couple of times Hikaru made some tests, playing a stone just to see how he'd respond, and each time he guessed right where his opponent would play.

While Hikaru grew calmer, Isobe was growing clearly more and more shaken. His hands shook a little, and his eyes kept on darting frantically between Hikaru and the board. "Is _this_ why you've done nothing about those hands?" he suddenly shrieked. Hikaru could just blink at him, failing to understand where _that_ came from.

Isobe sat back, glowering at him. "They're freaky," he muttered. "Just freaky. You want to unsettle your opponents, don't you? And maybe you can use that extra skin to hide what you're really doing!"

Hikaru kept on staring at him, wide eyed. "What?"

"Like here!" Isobe pointed at a white stone on the board. "I'm sure I didn't play there! You've moved that, haven't you?"

"_What?_" Hikaru repeated, eyes flaring. "Don't blame your stupid moves on me! I don't _cheat_!"

_Hikaru does _not_ cheat!_ Sai echoed him, for the first time sounding genuinely angry.

"Did you notice anything?" Isobe asked his friends. Morioka was shaking his head, looking troubled, but Narita nodded eagerly.

"I'm sure the stone was somewhere here, closer to these stones," he said, pointing.

"That'd be even stupider move!" Hikaru snapped. "Look, I don't have to cheat to win against someone like you! You're just a sore loser, aren't you?"

"_Cheater_." Isobe spat the word out. "A freaky cheater, that's all you are. I can't believe father's let someone like you into our home. Say, is your dad too…"

"You shut up!" Hikaru stood up, slamming his palms against the table so that the go stones jumped. The anger was back, the frothing sea, and like Sai's fear during the game with Touya, it brought heightened sensations with it. He glared at the boy on the other side of the table, and almost could see the water in him. A moment he thought of just _drawing_ it all out, and hopefully all go with it – for water, like go, was something too pure for this brat. He opened his mouth, but right then something slammed into him, _within_ him, and he gasped a breath, stumbling.

_Hikaru, stop!_

"But I…" he breathed, straightening his back to look at the boy who was watching him with a glare.

_No, listen to me. Ignore that boy, do you hear me! Hikaru!_ Something shook him again, but not so strongly. _Get out. Just _get out_!_

"Is something wrong with you?" Morioka, who was watching him worriedly. Hikaru turned and ran.

.

"I can't believe I've ran away from _two_ go games now because of you," he said aloud to Sai. After some aimless wandering he had managed to find a door that led into a garden. He was now hunching down by a small fountain, listening to its rippling.

_That game was over long before you left._

"Even so! What was that about? I wanted to… wanted to…"

_Yes?_

Hikaru said nothing.

_You don't understand,_ Sai went on._ The power you have within you, it is strong enough to kill. You must not use it in anger._

Hikaru frowned. "Kill? But I was just… just…" He paused. What _had_ he been planning to do? He wasn't sure. He shuddered a little. "He just made me so mad," he muttered.

_That's understandable. But…_

A voice cut him off. "So here you are!"

Hikaru glanced over his shoulder and saw Isobe together with his two friends.

"You're not supposed to be here. Get back in. I'm going to tell father I want you to leave."

Hikaru laughed out. "And your daddy let's you decide who can stay in his party and who not?"

"When I tell him you cheated in go he'll throw you out himself."

Hikaru stood up slowly and turned to look at them. "You're pathetic," he spat out. "Just pathetic. I'm happy to leave this place and I don't ever want to come back." He felt the anger again, but this time he concentrated on the water behind his back, determined to keep his emotions in check.

Isobe, turning to go, gave him a sidelong, expressionless look. "That's good. I doubt your father's coming back again, either. Actually, I'm going to make sure that _my_ father will…"

Hikaru didn't listen to the end. He was in the water of the fountain, in the cold, clear water, as cold and clear as his anger. He felt the water surge up and he _struck_, hard and with good aim, the retreating boy's words a meaningless mumble in his ears. Morioka had time to glance back and he opened his mouth to shout a warning, but too late. A pillar of water rose from the fountain, high into the air, and suddenly it flew forward over Hikaru's head, hitting Isobe's back with strength. The boy flew forward of the impact and fell down, and a moment just lay there while everyone stared in silence. Then he wailed, long and high, and Narita rushed to him.

"Isobe! Are you okay?"

The boy kept on crying and calling for his parents, and anxious voices carried from the inside. Morioka stared at Hikaru, who gave him an expressionless look and started walking away, leaving the scene in silence.

…

Later that night when the three of them had returned to their little apartment, Hikaru was lying on the bed that had been made for him on the couch, listening to his parents' voices. They were sitting in the kitchen, talking quietly, and he couldn't separate the words, just the tone. Sai could have, possibly, told him what they were talking about, but he didn't want to ask.

The rest of the day had been, to say the least, interesting. Isobe's parents had rushed to the place together with most of the guests, and some wild accusations had been flying around – but honestly, wasn't it just ridiculous to claim that anyone could have caused the accident intentionally, made the water surge up like that?

No one had paid much attention to that claim, for it truly was much too crazy, and also the alleged cheating at go was at the moment ignored. Hikaru had followed the bustle from farther away. His parents came to him, said nothing, but he met his mother's eyes and saw the question in them. Grumpily he looked away, not volunteering any information, and he remained quiet all the way home.

He did feel a little guilty about it, though, once he found out that the surge of water had in fact been hard enough to crack two of Isobe's ribs. Sai said nothing, but he could feel a certain 'I did try to warn' sensation from him.

So what? Hikaru rolled over, drew the blanket to his ears. The boy was a jerk. He deserved it.

The kitchen door opened and someone entered the living room. He heard the footsteps approach and knew it was his father, both from the steps and the smell of his cologne.

"Hikaru?" Masao said quietly. "Are you asleep?"

A moment he considered just laying there, unmoving, hoping he'd go away. _You need to speak with them, sooner or later,_ Sai whispered to him.

He sighed. "No I'm not," he muttered, and rolled to his back. His father sat down next to him and stayed quiet for a moment.

"Hikaru," he said finally. "I'm sure that whatever happened there, it wasn't your fault."

Hikaru looked up at him, long and hard. "And what if it was?" he asked quietly.

Masao frowned. "It couldn't have been," he said, but his voice didn't sound completely certain. "That's impossible. But even if it... somehow… were…" He paused, stared somewhere into emptiness. "You were fighting with Isobe's son, weren't you?" he suddenly asked.

"Kind of," Hikaru admitted. "But it's not…"

"Not your fault, either? Perhaps. And I should have warned you – everyone knows he's a spoiled brat."

"He said I cheated at go," Hikaru said sullenly.

"I heard. Did you?"

"Of course not!" Hikaru bolted up. "I'd never cheat!"

If Masao was taken aback by the fire in his son's eyes, he didn't show it. "That makes me happy," he just said. "But if it's true – that you were able to beat my boss's son, that is… you must be pretty good at go. We've all heard more than we care about the boy's skills – though who knows, maybe he's not that great, after all. But I hear he did win some big competition…"

He frowned, looking at his son. Hikaru lay back down. "This is partly why I'd want you two to move to Tokyo," he said. "It's not just that I miss you and Mitsuko, but I feel like I barely know you at all."

Hikaru said nothing for a moment. "I don't think I want to move to Tokyo," he said then in a small voice. "I'm sorry. I don't… like it here." He would have given much if he could have lain then in his own bed in their little house, where waters flowed as they should and the air wasn't full of something he couldn't name but that got stuck in his throat and stung his eyes.

"Well, let's talk about that tomorrow," Masao said after a moment's silence. "Good night." He stood up.

"Dad?" Hikaru said quietly as he started to leave. "Is this going to cause trouble for you?"

He shot a glance at his son and shook his head with a tiny smile. "Don't worry about that. It's going to be alright."

A couple of days later Hikaru and Mitsuko were back at home. His father had asked him to consider the move with time, not to make any hasty decisions, and Hikaru had nodded, not telling him that he would not change his mind.

Next time he logged into to Net Go, 'akira' was there. A message flashed on his screen.

_Do you live in Tokyo?_

Hikaru just stared at it, doing nothing. After a while another message appeared. _Or were you just visiting? I think we met… Why did you run away like that?_

Hikaru reached toward the keyboard, but hesitated.

_I'd like to play with you again. A real game, not just net go. Could you come to the go salon again?_

_O__r, if you for some reason really don't want to come, could we at least play online?_

_Please?_

Hikaru clicked the browser close.

…

One night when school had again started and Hikaru was half-sprawling over his desk, supposedly doing his homework, his mind returned to the constant messages Akira was still sending. "You behaved so strangely in Tokyo, Sai," he stated. "With Touya, I mean. What made you so worried?"

_…I've told you before you should be careful not to let people know your true skill. Either with go or water._

"Yeah, so you have. But that's just silly! Why not? You think they'd be jealous or something?"

_Maybe it is partly jealousy,_ Sai said, sounding thoughtful._ But above all… it's just dangerous._

"That's what you keep on saying! But _why_? You know Sai," Hikaru straightened his back and lowered the pen he had been twirling on the desk, "I think I'm going to send Touya a message and tell him that yeah, it was me."

_Hikaru…_

"Unless you can give some sensible reason not to!"

Sai was quiet a long while, so quiet and still Hikaru barely sensed him.

_When people found out about my skills_, he finally said, slowly, hesitantly, _it ended up with them thinking I'm some kind of a demon. I and my mother had to leave the capital – and she died – she was _killed – _soon after that._

"I… I'm sorry," Hikaru said, a little stunned. He could still, after a thousand years, feel the pain in Sai. "I didn't know. You've never told me anything!"

_Because you were so young,_ Sai whispered. _But maybe you're now old enough…_

"Of course I am!" Hikaru exclaimed, and felt Sai's laughter. "So, you'll tell me now?"

_After you've finished your homework._

"Sai! That's not fair!" Hikaru wailed, but Sai was adamant. Hikaru had no choice but to set intowork, and he was done with his math problems faster than ever before.

_I think you made a mistake in…_

"Who cares! I'm done." Hikaru snapped the book shut. "Start telling!"

And Sai did, of his life, of his mother and father, and the way he had spent most of his childhood shut into his mother's house. He told of the games he played when he left to explore the capital, and of the short, ill-fated visit at the palace. Hikaru grimaced as he told about his game with Sugawara no Akitada and its result.

"That guy's a jerk too," the boy said. "Just like Isobe."

_A bit_, Sai agreed. _But, you see, Hikaru, after that game we had no choice but to escape from the capital, go into a voluntarily exile. And very soon after we ran into bandits, and they killed my mother. And I_, he added in a whisper, _killed them_.

Hikaru digested that for a moment. He found it a strange idea to think of _Sai_ killing anyone. But then again, if Sai hadn't been there to stop him, who knew what he would have done to Isobe? And Sai, at least, had a genuine reason to hate those men.

Feeling quite uneasy, he decided he didn't want to think about that any longer. "Is that when you… joined the water?"

_Yes. I had nothing else left._

Hikaru thought about it. That story truly did explain many things about Sai. "But even so," he said aloud, "times have changed. People don't believe in demons anymore. That's just silly! No one would try to drive us away from our home because of something like that!"

_Are you so sure about that? Times might change, the clothes people wear look different, but inside… are they that different inside?_

"It's been a thousand years," Hikaru said firmly. "Trust me. People aren't silly superstitious fools anymore."

_No, they just are fools in general._ Sai sounded strangely sarcastic, perhaps even bitter. _A thousand years isn't as long a time as you might think. Besides, I've not finished the story yet._

Hikaru looked up, surprised. "You've not?"

_No. I haven't yet told you about Torajiro._

* * *

**A/N: **Isobe hideki, in the case you don't remember him, is that rather annoying kid from vol.18/ep.66 who goes out challenge Touya. Didn't turn out too well for him.

Next chapter is going to be interludish (but also, apparently, longer than I originally thought.) It might not be out before December, though, because, well. NaNo.


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